The civil suit against Draymond Green starts off this way: “Draymond Green is a bully.”
As we noted was coming, on Tuesday former Michigan State University football player Jermaine Edmondson and his girlfriend Bianca Williams filed a lawsuit against Green stemming from an incident a year ago in East Lansing, Mich., bar. Green was back in the town of his alma mater and ran into Edmondson at a bar, and some kind of altercation followed.
Green allegedly slapped him during this, although the plaintiffs say the men with Green shoved first Edmondson against a wall, then when Williams came over to intervene another man did the same to her, putting his hand around his throat. Green was arrested, but the prosecutors didn’t see it the same way and Green’s charges were reduced to a noise violation, where Green had to pay a $500 fine and $60 restitution fee. Because it was a civil infraction, there is no “guilty” or “not guilty” plea entered.
Here is Edmondson speaking.
Green’s attorney Katherine Grubaugh, issued the following statement:
“This lawsuit relates to an incident that occurred in East Lansing, Michigan over a year ago, for which Draymond paid a noise violation fine. Draymond looks forward to defending himself and clearing up the misinformation put forth today.”
As I said previously, I’m not about to speculate about the motives for the suit or what actually happened in the bar that night. I don’t know those things. What I do know, as someone who spent years as a young reporter covering courts and police, it is challenging for the plaintiff to prove their case and get paid in these kinds of lawsuits (if this actually gets to trial). While in a civil case the standard to reach drops to “a preponderance of the evidence,” the plaintiff has to prove damages. That is not easy, especially in a disputed bar fight (where the clarity of memory of any witness can be called into question) a year later.
