PHOENIX -- Baltimore Ravens linebacker Terrell Suggs was
acquitted of an assault charge from a playground altercation.
"I wasn't shocked when I heard the verdict," Suggs said
Wednesday. "You all have watched me grow up here. I've never once
been in trouble."
Suggs, who left Arizona State early, was the No. 10 pick in the
2003 NFL draft.
He said accuser Jeryme Cook was trying to lay the groundwork to
sue for damages.
"That used to be my best friend, so why -- unless he did
something to me -- would I try to harm him?" Suggs said. "We
played on the Arizona Swat team, basketball team, we spent the
night at each other's houses. He walked one path, and I walked
another."
The Maricopa County Superior Court jury acquitted Suggs of one
count of aggravated assault. Another felony assault count was filed
after the incident March 29, 2003, but Judge Michael Wilkinson
dismissed it last week.
The jury also exonerated Suggs' younger brother, Donald, of two
counts of aggravated assault for allegedly using a baseball bat in
the brawl.
The case sprang from an argument between Cook and the Suggs
brothers near basketball courts set up for a three-on-three
tournament at Phoenix Municipal Stadium. It escalated to violence
in a parking lot, where Suggs claimed he was hit over the head with
an iron rod.
According to testimony, the brothers then beat up Cook and
friends Casey Cothern and Anthony Henrie.
On Monday, a mutual friend of Terrell Suggs and Cook testified
that Cook told him he was planning to sue for big money, and Donald
Suggs testified that he wrested the bat from one of the men who
pressed charges.
The verdicts came after 1½ days of deliberations in the two-week
trial.