Former Pro Football Hall of Fame NFL star linebacker Lawrence Taylor was arrested on Thursday, May 6, and charged with raping a 16-year-old girl inside a Holiday Inn motel room. This is not Taylor’s first run-in with the law. He has a history of drug and alcohol-related offenses, and he once referred to his mansion as a “crack house.”
But these new charges threaten to damage Taylor’s carefully cultivated public image — and his marriage to his 3rd wife.
Taylor, who has 3 grown children with an ex-wife, was released on $75,000 bond yesterday. His attorney was quick to say Taylor did not have sex with the runaway-turned prostitute. Arthur Aidala called Taylor a “loving family man.”
“My client did not have sex with anybody,” Aidala said. “Lawrence Taylor did not rape anybody.”
But police say Taylor paid the teen $300 in cash for her services. Normally a man doesn’t pay that much cash for services not rendered.
According to online reports, the teenager was a runaway. Her family reported her missing in March. She met up with 36-year-old parolee, Rasheed Davis, who was prowling a Bronx, NY bus stop. Davis offered her food and a warm bed to sleep in. After moving her in with him, Davis quickly pimped her out to clients for sexual favors.
Early Thursday morning, Taylor called Davis, who had provided prostitutes to him in the past. When the teenager refused to go, Davis punched and kicked her, and then drove her to a Holiday Inn in Ramapo, NY where he handed the girl over to Taylor.
Afterwards, the girl sent a text message to her uncle who then went to the NYPD. Police say Taylor was “cooperative” when he was rousted out of bed in his hotel room at 4 am and arrested. He was charged with third-degree rape and patronizing a prostitute.
Davis was later arrested and charged with unlawful imprisonment, assault and endangering the welfare of a child. Davis has a long criminal history. In 2008, he was released from prison after serving 14 years of a 25-year sentence for first-degree manslaughter.
Residents in the sleepy Pembroke Pines, Florida community where Taylor lives and works out, were surprised to hear of the charges. “He’s a regular guy, a good guy who just goes about his business,” said Steffen Grover, who said he’d spoken to Taylor once or twice. “I think he just wants to be like everyone else.”
“I’m not that important,” Taylor said to a crush of reporters who covered his release from police custody in NY yesterday.
Taylor commented back in 2003 that “L.T. died a long time ago, and I don’t miss him at all… all that’s left is Lawrence Taylor.”
