The alleged victim decided she wanted to speak to the New York Post about what happened the night of her encounter with Lawrence Taylor. Here is what she had to say:
“I told him I wasn’t going to the hotel, and he said, ‘You’re f- – -ing this up, it’s $300,” the frightened Bronx girl, 16, said Rasheed Davis, 36, screamed at her early Thursday.
“He hit me in the face, so I covered my face,” said the girl, whose name The Post is withholding.
“He told me to tell him my name is Carmen and I’m 19 years old,” she said. “He told me repeatedly and I had to repeat it back to him.”
When she arrived at hotel in Suffern, “the lights were off and [Taylor] didn’t see my face was bruised,” the girl recounted. “Lawrence asked me my age and I told him I was 19.”
She said she feared for her life if she didn’t have sex with Taylor.
“If I didn’t go through with it, [Taylor] would’ve called Rasheed and there would have been consequences,” she said. “God knows what would’ve happened if I didn’t go through with it.”
On the drive back to The Bronx, the girl frantically text-messaged her uncle about the alleged assault and prostitution.
After getting the message, her uncle called 911 and cops were waiting at Davis’ home to arrest him.
Nothing that the young woman says disputes what I have learned about the case. The only reason Taylor is caught up in all of this is because he was the last person the young woman prostituted for. The young woman’s issue doesn’t appear to be with Taylor, but with her pimp, Rasheed Davis.
Her fear of Davis, not Taylor was the reason she had sex with LT.
She does confirm a couple of things that could be beneficial for Taylor’s defense. She admits Taylor asked about her age, and that she told him she was 19.
While “ignorance is not an excuse,” I don’t think a jury would be very sympathic to any defendant they thought was knowingly engaging in pedophile-type behavior.
She also states that because of the lighting in the room, Taylor could not see her bruises. Many people wondered how Taylor, seeing this young woman facial bruises, could turn a blind eye to it. If you believe the young woman’s account, Taylor did not know she was injured.
It also appears that Taylor was unaware of what was going on prior to or after the encounter.
From a legal standpoint that doesn’t mean much because the law is clear; if you have sex with an underage woman, regardless of the circumstances, you are guilty.
Just the fact that money was exchanged makes it an illegal activity.
In the court of public opinion though, showing that Taylor knew little to nothing about what was going on makes him look like less of a monster than he was being portrayed as initially.
My personal opinion is that anyone calling Taylor a “rapist” is way off base. I understand technically under the law that is what he is being charged with, but I am simply going by the facts.
Simply by the account of the alleged victim, there is nothing suggesting she was “raped” by Lawrence Taylor. While “ignorance is not an excuse” in the legal aspect of the case, from a common sense standpoint if he thinks he is sleeping with a 19 year old who at no time says or shows there is a problem, I am not going to say he “raped” anyone.
Trust me when I tell you that Taylor isn’t the first former or current athlete paying for sex, and it would be naive to think that every girl these athletes are sleeping with who claim to be 18 and over is telling the truth.
For those saying that a 16 year old can’t “consent” to having sex, from a legal perspective in some states they are exactly correct, but I like to live in a place called the real world. In the real world, 16 year old boys and girls are having consensual sex daily and that isn’t on a small scale, but a large one. Should it be happening? Absolutely not, but has it happened, you better believe it. Don’t be naive, step out of the Matrix from time to time.
Taylor used incredibly bad judgment, and I do think it is wrong for a 51 year old man to be having sex with a girl he believed to be “19.” I think it is even more wrong that a 51 year old man is paying for a believed-to-be “19” year old prostitute.
For that crime alone I believe Taylor should be prosecuted, but the facts are that Taylor is a byproduct of a bigger incident. It makes me wonder if his name wasn’t Lawrence Taylor, but rather Lawrence Tanner, would the police have even pursued it, when it is obvious Rasheed Davis is the dangerous criminal.
So for those who are spewing venom toward Taylor, I would expect you to spew 10x the venom for Davis. Because it was Davis who knew how old this young woman was, it was Davis that has been selling her out for prostitution, it was Davis who was physically and mentally abusing her, and it was Davis who she was in fear of.
The person who deserves to be thrown under the jail is Rasheed Davis. Lawrence Taylor was stupid and a dirty old man; Davis is an evil and vile human being.
Remember that before your next “tweet” calling Taylor a rapist.