Former two-division UFC champion and mixed martial arts superstar Conor McGregor is facing criminal charges following a fracas in Brooklyn, New York. Now criminal and civil lawyer Dmitry Shakhnevich has come forward to offer his thoughts on how the case may go.
“Notorious” decided to pay a visit to the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York on Thursday, April 5. The Irish native then escorted a large entourage backstage of the center, where the large group allegedly attacked a bus filled with red corner fighters for UFC 223.
Khabib Nurmagomedov was on the bus at the time and is believed to have been the target, as the fighter had a confrontation with McGregor’s teammate Artem Lobov within a hotel jut days earlier. McGregor is believed to have possibly acted in retaliation to his slighted SBG Ireland teammate.
Multiple people were injured in the fracas, forcing Michael Chiesa and Ray Borg to be removed from their respective UFC 223 match ups for injuries sustained. An estimated $8,000 in damages was also caused to the bus.
Conor McGregor is now facing misdemeanor assault charges and felony criminal mischief charges for the incident. Having made his $50,000 bail, “Notorious” is now free to travel internationally and is not due back in court until June 14.
Criminal and civil lawyer Dmitry Shakhnevich recently sat down with BloodyElbow to offer his thoughts on the upcoming case. To Shakhnevich, he believes McGregor will likely never see jail time.
“So he’s charged with felonies and misdemeanors. The felonies are serious crimes by definition. He’s charged with the low-level felonies, right? There are five levels of felonies in New York, he’s charged with the two lowest, D and E (note: New York classifies felonies on an A through E basis, in order of severity). So he’s not looking at, in Brooklyn, generally, you wouldn’t get jail time for this, especially if it’s your first offense, which I understand this is. So, what’ll likely happen is he’ll probably get it reduced to either a misdemeanor or maybe even a non-criminal disposition, though that’s unlikely. I don’t think he’ll serve any jail time at all. Again, that’s highly unlikely. I think he’ll probably be sentenced to some form of community service or something of that nature, and the case will go away.
“The issue is immigration. If by way of a guilty plea he’s convicted of a misdemeanor, that can have immigration consequences. I don’t think it will – I think his lawyers will craft something creative to work around that. But that’s really what you have to look out for here.
“Well, again – the way that criminal convictions impact immigration status, there are no black and white rules. Generally speaking, if you’re convicted of a misdemeanor. right? Which is a low-level offense, the lowest level offense in in New York in terms of crime. Typically that one misdemeanor – again, typically – will fall under the petty offense exception which basically allows the person to travel in and out. So I don’t think unless it’s some specific type of misdemeanor, I don’t think that’ll have an impact on his immigration status. But again, it’s something his lawyers have to look out for. They should probably engage immigration counsel, because they’re criminal lawyers.”
