Perrish Cox wants sex assault hearing closed to media, public http://bit.ly/gwdx5C
Knowshon Moreno Fan
KnowshonFan
According to an article from the National football post, Perrish Cox and his attorney (Harry Steinberg) would like the media and public to stay away from his sexual assault trial.
Steinberg says that the presence of reporters will "severely impact the defendant's right to trial by a fair and impartial jury. The release of such information creates a clear and present danger to the court's ability to conduct a fair and impartial trial. The media should be excluded from the preliminary hearing."
It seems like a fairly reasonable request to me, considering the fact that it's only a preliminary hearing, but a lawyer from the Denver Post has issued the following response:
"It has no basis in law. The defendant cannot possibly meet that standard, and that is why preliminary hearings are uniformly open, including that of Kobe Bryant."
-Steve Zansberg
A lot of people are going to wonder "What does Perrish have to hide that he doesn't want the media to find out?" To be honest, none of us know the answer to that question. Perhaps he fears defamation from a media maelstrom? Perhaps he is guilty and doesn't want people to know? Whatever the case may be, the media and the public are going to find out details to this case, eventually.
This case isn't going to just go away. I'm all for protecting a person's privacy and, for the record, I believe that Perrish Cox should be allowed privacy from the media at a time like this. On the other hand, privacy is not something that any NFL player has, in today's society. Perrish and his attorney are only delaying the inevitable. If he is innocent, we'll see Perrish on the football field in the fall (pending a CBA agreement). If he's guilty, we won't. Privacy or not, it won't take a lot of deductive power to figure that one out.