Last month, Manhattan district attorney Robert Morgenthau said that his office would convene a grand jury in July in connection with the felony weapons charges pending against former Giants receiver Plaxico Burress.
The grand jury undoubtedly will indict Burress for illegal possession of a loaded and unlicensed firearm (unless Morgenthau brings in Virginia prosecutor Gerald Poindexter, who wasn’t able to get a grand jury to indict Mike Vick on charges of killing dogs, even though Vick signed his name to a document in which he admitted it).
There’s officially one week left in the month of July, and there’s no word on any indictment of Burress.
Per a source with knowledge of the situation, there have been no developments in the pending legal case.
And so Burress continues to twist in the wind, even as the aforementioned Vick receives expedited consideration of his own playing status from the league office.
But he might not twist much longer. Regardless of whether Morgenthau follows through on his promise to convene a grand jury in July, we’re told that a meeting between Goodell and Burress is expected to occur during the week of August 3.
The league office previously has disclosed that Commissioner Roger Goodell is reviewing the Burress case, a sign that Burress likely will be suspended even before the charges against him are resolved.
The options for Goodell are simple: (1) suspend Burress indefinitely, until the case is concluded and any jail time is served; (2) impose a finite suspension, under the assumption that he’ll eventually plead guilty or be convicted of something in connection with the open-and-shut case; or (3) announce that no suspension will be imposed until the case is concluded.
Regardless of the direction in which the league goes, inaction simply isn’t fair to Burress. With no team willing to touch him until the league office takes action on the case, delay operates as a de facto suspension.
So with or without an indictment, it appears that the league office is poised to act on Plaxico’s situation.
Especially since, by all appearances, the prosecution has yet to acquire any sense of urgency regarding the case.