If Peterson is found guilty, he is likely to get probation as a first time offender and then be suspended by the NFL.
If he is found innocent, there probably won’t be a suspension by the NFL and he will be cleared to play, but by taking it to trial it will eliminate the possibility of him playing this year in all likelihood.
Here is what his lawyer had to say.
Mary Flood, the spokesperson for Peterson’s attorney Rusty Hardin, told ESPN.com in an email that Peterson is committed to pleading not guilty to charges of reckless or negligent injury to a child, stemming from an incident where he used a switch, or small tree branch, to discipline his son during a visit to his home in Texas earlier this year.
Peterson’s initial appearance in Montgomery County, Texas, is scheduled for 10 a.m. ET on Wednesday.
“If the court asks for a plea tomorrow (and we do expect that to happen), it will very definitely be NOT guilty,” Flood wrote in an email to ESPN.com on Tuesday. “We hope that a trial date is also discussed but don’t yet know how the court’s docket is looking.”
Unless Hardin is able to secure a quick trial date and convince a jury that Peterson did not violate Texas’ corporal punishment law while disciplining his son, it likely means the running back’s 2014 season is over.
It could take up to a year before Peterson’s goes to trial meaning it could bleed over into next season as well.