Vikings running back Adrian Peterson may not have to rely on the Chewbacca defense to avoid charges of resisting arrest in Houston.
Apart from the fact that we still don’t know what he was being arrested for when he was resisting arrest in the first place, the key words for the potential Peterson prosecution are “reasonable” and “doubt.”
As attorney Rusty Hardin said on Wednesday’s edition of The Dan Patrick Show, there turned out to be no surveillance video of the incident that resulted in Peterson being placed in handcuffs, allegedly after being punched in the face and roughed up by police. Coupled with, as Hardin claims, six eyewitnesses who contend Peterson did nothing wrong, it will be very difficult for prosecutors to believe they’ll get a conviction via the high standard of proof beyond a reasonable doubt.
And so Hardin will try to persuade prosecutors to move on. It may not be that easy, if the prosecutors are looking for a way to help the cops save face, via a slap-on-the-wrist reduced charge or some other acknowledgement by Peterson of at least partial responsibility for the situation.
Still, if Hardin plans to take the case to trial -- and if Peterson is willing to pay him the money it would cost to do so -- prosecutors would see money and time diverted from fighting real crimes to making an example out of a guy who apparently failed to leave a nightclub at closing time quickly enough, and who may have gotten a little mouthy, and at worst a little shove-y, in the process.
Our guess? This one is going way, especially since Peterson is so widely regarded as anything but a problem child.