UFC megastar is due in court concerning the fracas that took place in Brooklyn, New York to a UFC bus on April 5. Today, July 26, “Notorious” will be back in court to face criminal charges for the incident.
Now Brooklyn criminal and civil lawyer Dmitriy Shakhnevich has come forward to offer some insightful information concerning the possibilities that may proceed from the hearing. As provided by Pundit Arena, check out a transcript of Shakhnevich’s advice down below.
How serious are the charges levelled against Conor McGregor?
DS: The charges are fairly serious. His most serious charge, as far as I understand, is a D Felony, punishable by up to seven years in prison. But that’s upon conviction at trial. This case is very unlikely to go to trial. Thus, my belief is that a plea deal will be worked out to avoid jail time.
A plea deal? What shape could that take and what are McGregor’s options?
DS: It does look like, as I predicted, Conor will likely be entering a guilty plea in this case and avoiding jail time. In my view, there are three options here.
#1 – Conor will enter a plea to a misdemeanor (one of the lower offences with which he’s charged) – He’ll have to plead guilty to a misdemeanor, which is a crime in New York State and thus, be left with a criminal record for the rest of his life.
#2 – It’ll be what’s called a conditional plea. – This means that he will likely plead guilty to a misdemeanor (crime) initially and then have to satisfy certain conditions, such as community service, course-taking (e.g., anger management) and the payment of fines and/or restitution.
If he satisfies those conditions, then he can show proof of that to the Court and his case will be reduced to a non-criminal disposition (again, called a “violation,” of the law). But even with the first option (the straight misdemeanor), he will likely still have to satisfy certain conditions, as mentioned above.
#3 – He’ll be allowed to enter a plea to a straight violation. This basically means Conor will never have a criminal record at all. That would be the best option for him. But again, certain relatively demanding conditions would likely have to be satisfied in order for that plea to go through.
So how do each of these plea deals work as far as his fighting future – specifically on US soil – is concerned?
DS: The most important thing here is to preserve his immigration status and ability to travel (because he needs that to make money), and all of those pleas would likely satisfy that requirement.
What are the worst and best case scenarios realistically?
DS: The worst case scenario is that he goes to trial, loses and is sentenced to jail time. The best-case scenario is a plea that leaves him without a criminal record, with some combination of monetary penalties, community service and maybe some courses to be taken, such as anger management perhaps.
Are the injuries that both Michael Chiesa and Ray Borg sustained on the day likely to haunt Conor in the future?
DS: They can also sue him and try to get money out of him in various forms.
Importantly, he will have to admit wrongdoing in one form or another. If he does that, that will expose him to civil liability. That means that if he is then sued civilly (for money), he will likely have to pay without question.
That’s the way that the law works (admitting wrongdoing in a criminal case opens the floodgates if a civil case is commenced). While money may not be the first thing on his mind, it’s important that Conor and his team keep that in mind, which I’m sure they will.
