The attorney for former New York Giants cornerback DeAndre Baker says his client has been a victim in his controversial armed robbery case.
As theGrio previously reported, Baker was charged in August for a bizarre armed robbery that may have been sparked by a card game gone awry.
The four counts of robbery with a firearm and four counts of aggravated assault stem from a house party Baker attended with Seattle Seahawks corner Quinton Dunbar and another man in Mirimar, Florida on May 13th.
At some point, things went wrong, potentially over a card game where Baker and Dunbar lost money, according to published reports. Baker is accused of stealing $12K in cash and watches from several guests at the cookout, and directing another masked man to shoot someone walking into the party.
Read More: NFL’s DeAndre Baker charged in bizarre armed robbery
Baker was facing up to life in prison; but on Monday, all charges were dropped after it emerged that he was caught up in an extortion plot, TMZ reports.
Prosecutors say an attorney representing three of the alleged victims was arrested Monday for a scheme “related to soliciting a cash payout on behalf of the three men in exchange for altered testimony.”
Baker’s attorney, Bradford Cohen, tells TMZ Sports that the athlete was being extorted in exchange for witnesses to flip the script on what went down during the cookout shootout.
“The result is the correct result in dismissing DeAndre’s case. We have been saying he was a victim of an extortion from day one,” Cohen said.
According to prosecutors, the alleged victims initially filed sworn statements “in which they asserted that three men committed a robbery with a firearm upon them and that Mr. Baker was one of the assailants.”
The charges against Baker were also dropped because the victims and witnesses became “uncooperative.”
“The alleged victims and the known witnesses have become uncooperative and their credibility is inalterably tarnished,” prosecutors said, according to the report.
The alleged victims reportedly changed their initial claims of Baker being the robber to stating he was present during the robbery but he did not commit a crime.
One of the three witnesses refused to answer questions, almost causing prosecutors to hold the individual in contempt.
With so many changes and so much dishonesty, prosecutors thought it was best to drop the charges.
Baker got drafted by the Giants in the 1st round of the 2019 NFL Draft. But news of his alleged semi-automatic firearm robbery got him cut by team in September, TMZ reported.
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