Regardless of what Jets defensive coordinator Dennis Thurman actually did, or didn’t do, to a woman at a New Jersey club, it will be very difficult if not impossible for prosecutors to make battery charges stick.
For starters, the alleged victim said she wasn’t injured. Moreover, an eyewitness tells Emily Smith of the New York Post that Thurman did nothing wrong.
“I am a lifelong Giants fan, but am speaking out because this accuser is wrong,” 43-year-old Tim Dolan told the Post. “I was sitting at a table eight feet away with a client and saw Thurman arrive and sit at the bar next to the woman and her friend. They began having a conversation, and at times the woman seemed open to him and would turn to him, and other times she would turn back to her friend and show her back to him. This went on for 20 minutes. It didn’t look like they were in an argument.”
Dolan said that the alleged victim’s friend asked Dolan and others if they say Thurman slap the woman in the face.
“If I had seen something I would have said or done something, but he didn’t hit her,” Dolan said.
It all adds up to reasonable doubt, which would make it virtually impossible to convict Thurman of a crime. Since he has no apparent prior incidents, it also will make it difficult if not impossible for the league to impose discipline under the Personal Conduct Policy.