The Screw Tightens

His name's not Sean, but this Taylor just leveled a huge hit on Michael Vick

The beginning of the beginning of the end for this case. Michael Vick's friend Tony Taylor has changed his plea from not guilty to guilty in their federal dogfighting case. I can't write it any better, so I am just going to quote Master4Caster at Running Redskins:

What's ominous is that Taylor isn't "copping a plea" in return for a promise of a light sentence. According top the news report, the Feds did not offer a deal. Taylor is falling on the mercy of the court in return for his testimony against the other defendants.

Without knowing anything about Taylor, I'm going to guess that he has credibility issues -- just because I think dog fighters have "credibility issues." Had he pled out to get a lighter sentence, a sharp attorney like Billy Martin could savage him for self-serving interests. Now, Taylor has no incentive for hiding the truth, and a good deal of incentive to avoid perjury. If the judge senses "T" is untruthful, the sentence will be harsher.

Vick assembled a superlative legal team to represent him. That indicates he intends to fight the charges, which is entirely within his rights. At the moment, he is innocent. The evidence and testimony has yet to be challenged. But, the longer this goes on, the more comes out, and the more Ookie twists in the wind.

When the case was led by Surry County, Vick had little to worry about, since he had more financial resources (I suspect) than a backwater county. Once the feds took the lead, starting with their search of the property on Moonlight Road, things rapidly spun out of control for Vick. The best course of action for Vick would have been to cop a plea for lesser charges with the County, and suppress a lot the evidence before the feds turned up. Too late for that now.

This is very bad for Michael. The walls are closing in.

Jim Mora Junior is shocked. He coached Michael for three seasons and had no idea. Michael has secrets.

Nike and Reebok have suspended sales of Michael Vick product, as has Rawlings. I can't say for certain that the Atlanta Falcons ever were in this list, but they are not in the list of teams with signed memorabilia for sale through nfl.com (look upper left). For a pro athlete, standing in corporate America precedes standing in beer-drinking America.

That former co-defendent, the non-famous one, says Michael financed almost the whole operation. Michael has 'clarification and amplification' issues.

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The county clerk in Surry County, Virginia, who is black as is much of the county leadership, is receiving racist hate mail. It makes me sad that in my beloved Virginia there are such stupid and racist people.



Vick co-defendant Tony Taylor leaving court in Richmond, Virginia: AP photo from here.