Former New York Giants player Lawrence Taylor appeal for media ban on child support case rejected
Former New York Giants linebacker Lawrence Taylor requested a media ban for the court proceedings regarding child support payments. However, his request was denied by a judge on Friday.
New Jersey resident Ebony Washington has taken Taylor to court in an attempt to increase child support payments for their 12-year-old daughter, who has recently been diagnosed with Crohn’s disease. Taylor fathered the child but has never met her. Washington
receives $456 per week to support her daughter, according to her attorney, Debra Weisberg.
James Key Jr., Taylor’s attorney, says that news stories about the proceedings unfairly portray his client as a deadbeat, even though he has never missed a child support payment. He has filed a cross-claim to reduce the payments that he has to make.
Key referred to an article in a New York newspaper whose headline read “LT Tackles Ex On Kid Support.” The article has a picture of Taylor overlapping a courtroom. The article was centred on a court appearance scheduled for November, for which Taylor did
not show up due to a medical condition.
Key told state Superior Court Judge Peter Melchionne that the article “implies that Mr. Taylor was not adequately supporting this child.” Melchionne agreed that the article may have attracted negative attention to Taylor but disagreed that the extensive
media coverage was harming his daughter, saying that Taylor did not make any statements or filings in court that would do something like that.
“He speculates and acts like he's an expert on what's best for this child,” Weisberg told the judge. “Mr. Taylor has an issue with the [newspaper] article because [he] doesn't like what was written about him.”
Melchionne also said family-court cases are always open to the public except for a case of abuse or neglect. He says that this is “strictly an economic case.”
The judge said that allowing the public in “might even be more important when there is someone of celebrity status, because otherwise they might think that special favors were given to them just because they have a title.”
Taylor was with the Giants in the days of “The Big Blue Wrecking Crew.” He was ranked as the third greatest player in the history of the National Football League (NFL). Taylor won several awards in his rookie year and many more throughout the rest of his
career. He was picked second overall in the first round of the 1981 NFL Draft by New York and stayed there until he retired in 1993.
In his 13 years with the Giants, Taylor was selected to ten successive Pro Bowls, nine First-Team All-Pro selections, two Super Bowl wins, the NFL Most Valuable Player (MVP) award, three NFL Defensive Player of the Year awards and the NFL Defensive Rookie
of the Year award. He is also a member of the Giants’ Ring of Honor and had his #56 jersey retired by the team.
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