Gareon Conley can never be called a ham sandwich.
The Raiders cornerback, facing rape charges in Ohio, will not be indicted by a grand jury, PFT has confirmed. The decision initially was reported by Ed Gallek of FOX8 News in Cleveland.
Many legal pundits claim that prosecutors could indict a ham sandwich, in reference to the one-sided nature of the proceedings. But prosecutors must want to try to get the indictment; sometimes, prosecutors simply goes through the motions and doesn’t press aggressively for a finding by the grand jury of probable cause to believe the accused is guilty. And that can be motivated by a variety of factors, including concerns regarding the inability to secure a conviction under the high standard of proof beyond a reasonable doubt.
Although Conley can still be sued for sexual assault (with a much lower standard of proof), the case is now closed from the NFL’s perspective, because the behavior occurred before he was drafted by the Raiders. The end result from the league’s perspective is that the Raiders secured at pick No. 24 a guy who most likely would have been gone well before Oakland was on the clock.