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Show StatesmanSports Paee 10 Wednesday, April I, 2009 Burr ess case adjourned until June 15 NEW YORK (AP) - A gun possession case against New York Giants star Plaxico Burress was adjourned Tuesday until June unless he reaches a plea agreement with prosecutors to resolve the matter sooner. Burress accidentally shot himself in the thigh with an unlicensed gun he'd stuffed into his waistband at a Manhattan nightclub last year. The star receiver, wearing a gray suit and a light blue shirt, arrived at Manhattan Criminal Court in the company of his wife and his attorney, Benjamin Brafman. Both sides agreed to adjourn the case to June 15 following a brief hearing before Judge Michael Yavinsky. Burress' bail was continued. Prosecutor John Wolfstaetter told the judge that the prosecution was continuing its investigation. Brafman told reporters after the hearing that he had reached no plea agreement with prosecutors and said discussions were continuing. If the two sides agree, they will not necessarily wait for the scheduled court date, he said. "If the case needs to be advanced to an earlier date it will be ...We are continuing to work our respective investigations, stay tuned," he said. Asked whether Burress would play for the Giants this year, Brafman said, "It's not my decision. Its the Giants' decision and Plaxico's decision. It's not a legal decision, it's a sports decision. "I assume a lot will depend on how, when and if this case is resolved and June 15th is the next day we are back unless there is a reason to come back earlier." A law enforcement official with knowledge of the case said Monday that Burress' attorneys and prosecutors remain at odds over the terms of a plea deal, with the District Attorney's office pushing for a stiffer punishment than what defense lawyers believe Burress deserves. Burress is charged with criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree, a felony carrying a minimum prison sentence of 30 years upon conviction. A plea deal that includes jail time, depending on the length of the sentence, could have a bearing on whether Burress is able to play football next season. Statistics show that more than eight out of 10 people arrested in the city last year on the same charge Burress faces received reduced charges, though some plea deals HHH N E W YORK GIANTS FOOTBALL PLAYER PLAXICO BURRESS arrives at a Manhattan criminal court with his wife, Tiffany, Tuesday. His gun possession case was adjourned until June 15. Burress, who accidentally shot himself at a Manhattan night club last year, has been charged with criminal possession of a weapon which is a second degree felony. The Giants have said that the door is open for him to come back after his legal issues have been resolved. AP photo included jail time. Only about 14 percent of the people charged last year with the same charge that Burress faces were ultimately convicted of it, said John Caher, a spokesman for the state Division of Criminal Justice Services. Of the 1,248 people in New York City initially arrested on second-degree criminal weapons possession in 2008,184 were convicted of the charge. About half were convicted of a misdemeanor or violation, and the remaining convictions were usually lesser felonies with some jail time. Prosecutors, in offering reduced charges in gun possession cases, consider past criminal history, arrest circumstances and the reason for having the weapon. The 31-year-old wide receiver, who caught the winning touchdown pass in the Giants' 2008 Super Bowl victory over the previously undefeated New England Patriots, has no criminal record. The gun he was carrying had a Florida license that only recently expired; it wasn't licensed in New York. Burress has not spoken publicly about why he was carrying a gun, but some have speculated it was for safety reasons after teammate Steve Smith was robbed at gunpoint three days before the incident. Former prosecutor Randy M. Mastro, a deputy mayor under Rudy Giuliani, said Burress' case was going to be "a close call." COMBO MEAL UNDER Sectionf A different point of view W CRESTWOODt \ • >I "H I \ S Si I \ ii. \ Mm \ Crest«woods [kuh n-veen-yu/i ns] Definition: Low summer Rates! (From $488) -Private bedroom; private bath -Expanded cable; Free High Speed Internet •Airconditioning; Covered Parking (Edgewood) -Washer and dryer in your apartment -Practically on Campus Synonyms: Summer, Social, Fun, Good Times Used in a sentence: With Crestwoods, your housing choice is made! See also: www.logancrestwoods.com "He's got a pretty compelling story to tell," Mastro said. "But, at the same time, there's been a tremendous public outcry, particularly by some politicians, about this famous figure having a weapon." Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has waged a long campaign against illegal guns, has publicly castigated Burress for carrying the .40-caliber weapon. And there was talk of a cover-up by the Giants and the NFL after the Nov. 28 incident at the Latin Quarter after it took police nearly 12 hours to figure out Burress had shot himself and was hospitalized; the player turned himself in three days later. Bloomberg's office on Monday said the mayor will leave it to prosecutors to decide how to handle the case. Burress' Giants teammates have been supportive about his return. The Giants lost four of their final five games after Burress was suspended, fined and placed on the non-football injury list, meaning he also could not appear in the playoffs. The Giants finished 12-5, losing at home in the playoffs to the Philadelphia Eagles. The Giants, who signed Burress to a five-year, $35 million contract extension in September, have left the door open for his return once his legal issues are resolved. ith basketball officially in the rear-view mirror, it's time to look ahead to football season. This football season arguably holds more promise and reasonably nigh expectations as any season this decade. Utah State returns a total of 17 starters from a season ago in which the Aggies finished the season on a strong note, relative to USU's recent football track record. Even more encouraging is that just about every player who was key to the success USU had in 2008 is returning for 2009 - with many of them being here for 2010 and 2011 as well. While 3-9 is not a record that most teams would write home about, I feel like it has been plenty overlooked that the 2008 Aggies were a grand total of three plays away from a tie for second place in the Western Athletic Conference with what could have been a 5-3 conference record. Take away Fresno State's miracle 58yard field goal as time expired as well as the two interception returns for touchdowns by Louisiana Tech and the Aggies would have been coming off a five-win season and a tie for second place in the WAC. Obviously things didn't go that way, and the silver lining to that is that the USU head coaching position is now occupied by Gary Andersen instead of Brent Guy. But the past is the past. The Aggies lost those games that they could easily have won and now we are stuck with a head coach who just finished a season where he led the defense of the only undefeated team in the country. While last season was loaded with highlights of quarterback Diondre Borel and runningback Robert Turbin, I feel like the real reason to be excited for this coming season, and you can go ahead and call me oldfashioned, is the Aggies offensive line. With five games to go last season, a complete overhaul of the starting offensive line was done and a quartet of freshmen, along with one sophomore, took over the majority playing time in the trenches. The result was a record of 2-3 in the final five games which included the aforementioned miracle field-goal by Fresno State and the duo of interception returns for touchdowns by Louisiana Tech that kept the Aggies from finishing the season 4-1. That other loss was on the road to the eventual WAC Champion Boise State Broncos, and while USU was thoroughly blown out in that game, they did manage to score more points on the infamous "Smurf Turf" than any other visiting opponent did in the 2008 season. The success of the overhauled offensive line was demonstrated seemingly very clearly in the the yards per game production of USU's offense over the year's final five games. Through the first seven games of the 2008 season, Utah State gained an average of 308 yards and scored an average 18.7 points per game. In the final five games of the year the Aggies put up averages* o f 3 7 0 yards and 31.4 points per game. Did I mention that almost all of these guys were freshmen? To be fair, there were other players who started during the final five-game stretch of the season, which means that had to have beaten out the previous starter in practice that week. Conventional wisdom suggests that this will keep players pushing and trying to out-work each other for playing time, which ultimately benefits the team as a whole. If football games are really won and lost on the lines, and they are, USU has got something pretty excellent going for them with their front five on the offensive side of the ball. Oh, and don't forget Borel and Turbin. Matt Sonnenberg is a junior majoring in print journalism. He can be reached f at matt sonn@ email. usu. edu. |