Bounty

Scandal could rise to criminal level

By Daniel Kaplan, Staff Writer

Published March 12, 2012

While the New Orleans Saints franchise, its players, its coaches, and former defensive coordinator Gregg Williams await word on punishments from NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell in the recently surfaced bounty scandal, there is another long arm they may need to be worried about: the feds.

Criminal defense attorneys and a former federal prosecutor said last week that if it’s proved the club engaged, between 2009 and 2011, in a coordinated plan to pay players to purposefully injure competitors, that could be considered a criminal organization.

Players injured in the bounty scandal, like Favre, could file civil complaints against the Saints. Photo by: GETTY IMAGES

“If they were running an enterprise within the team, and people conspired on whether to physically injure other players in order to get them out, that certainly would amount to a crime,” said David Schwartz, a former prosecutor in the Brooklyn, N.Y., district attorney’s office and currently a criminal defense lawyer.

There was no sign as of Thursday of federal law enforcement agencies investigating, and the NFL declined to comment beyond the expansive press release the league issued March 2 announcing the findings from its investigation.

It is highly unlikely local law enforcement in Louisiana would take up the case, given the political sensitivities of tackling a case involving the beloved Saints. But Charles Ross, a criminal defense lawyer, said the local federal attorney could appoint a special investigator or prosecutor.

“There could be potential criminal exposure, even though there is a certain consent to violence when you strap on the pads,” Ross said. “That consent is changed when there is an intentional effort to actually injure someone rather than physically tackle him or her. The intent element is manifested by the money payments.”

The NFL is expected to announce punishments by the time of the league’s annual meeting, which starts March 25. However, the NFL Players Association has asked for time to do its own investigations, including interviewing team officials. The NFL had declined to comment on the NFLPA request as of Thursday.

Individual players who contend they were hurt as part of the Saints’ efforts could file their own civil complaints as part of the scandal, though several players, including Kurt Warner and Brett Favre, both apparently targeted as part of the program, played down in public interviews the hits they took.

Schwartz and Ross each emphasized the difficulty of establishing a criminal case, noting there would have to be financial records tying specific hits to injuries. The NFL has said it has tens of thousands of pages of evidence to support its contention the program existed.