New York Giants News & Rumors

Amidst allegations that he facilitated a payoff of victims in an effort to convince them to change their stories, Michael Grieco, defense attorney for Seahawks CB Quinton Dunbar, has withdrawn his appearance, as Bob Condotta of the Seattle Times tweets. Dunbar will move forward with the counsel he hired last week, Michael D. Weinstein.

Grieco offered the following statement: “We agreed that new counsel would allow for continued advocacy of Mr. Dunbar’s innocence without any collateral distractions.” Indeed, Grieco was under criminal investigation for his role in the alleged payoff as of June, though it’s unclear whether that investigation is still ongoing.

Given these new developments, it does not sound as if the cases against Dunbar and Giants CB Deandre Baker are going away anytime soon. And John Clayton of 710 ESPN Seattle hears from one of the Miami Herald reporters who is covering the story, David Ovalle, that courts in the region are so backed up due to coronavirus closures that it could take until 2021 or 2022 for the matter to proceed to court.

Clayton’s story does not reference how courts are handling criminal defendants’ speedy trial rights in the wake of COVID-19, but assuming that the cases for Baker and Dunbar do indeed get pushed back that far, their immediate NFL futures become even more difficult to predict (not to mention their long-term futures as free member of society). In ordinary circumstances, the league might put them on the commissioner’s exempt list until there is a resolution — which Clayton suggests could still happen — but our COVID-19 reality is anything but ordinary. And while the league could suspend the players, it would have to be an indefinite suspension that could last several years.

So, for now, it seems as if Dunbar and Baker are free to play, assuming their respective teams allow them to do so. Clayton confirms earlier rumors that the Giants are considering cutting Baker, but we have not yet heard that Seattle plans to move on from Dunbar.

The alleged cover-up attempt surrounding a incident in May that resulted in felony charges for Giants CB Deandre Baker and Seahawks CB Quinton Dunbar created a major plot twist in the evolving saga. The latest reports suggest that a witness to the incident, Dominic “Coach” Johnson, worked with Baker and Dunbar’s attorney, Michael Grieco, to pay other witnesses to recant their earlier testimony implicating the NFL players.

And according to Nicholas Nehamas, David Ovalle, and David Smiley of the Miami Herald, Grieco was under criminal investigation for his involvement at least as of last month. A spokeswoman for Miramar (Fla.) police said she could not comment on whether Grieco was still being investigated.

Grieco issued a statement saying that the witnesses are “seasoned career criminals” who have been attempting to extort Baker and Dunbar from the jump. Video footage, however, suggests that the alleged payoff took place at Grieco’s office, and Grieco presented to police affidavits from those very same witnesses immediately after the meeting. All five affidavits, according to police, are identical.

It’s not a good look for Grieco, Dunbar — who has retained additional counsel — or Baker. But Baker’s attorney, Bradford Cohen, says his client paid no one, has passed a lie detector test, and is the victim of a smear tactic (Twitter link).

Patrick Patel, an attorney who represents Baker in NFL-related matters — but who appears to be involved in strategizing his criminal defense just the same — tells Paul Schwartz of the New York Post that he and Cohen knew about the payoff attempt, and that they encouraged Baker to participate in the farce in order to expose it for what it really was. If that’s true, of course, then that means Grieco and Dunbar may indeed have paid for what they got.

As Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk points out, Dunbar and Baker may well have committed the crimes as alleged, but the victims may have seen an opportunity to cash in just the same. Both things can be true. But at this point, it looks as though Dunbar’s and Baker’s respective approaches must diverge, so this matter just became even more fascinating to follow.

Bob Condotta of the Seattle Times says the Seahawks have not yet considered cutting Dunbar, though Pat Leonard of the New York Daily News — who broke the original payoff story — cites unnamed Giants sources who said they don’t expect Baker to be on the club much longer.