Las Vegas Prosecutors Drop Battery Charge Against Blake Griffin

Blake Griffin
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Fully healthy and legal troubles avoided, now all Blake Griffin has to do is prepare for the postseason. Just over a week after he returned to the lineup following a month-long absence due to a staph infection, prosecutors dropped battery charges against the Los Angeles Clippers superstar stemming from a late October incident at a Las Vegas nightclub.

Here’s David Ferrara of the Las Vegas Review-Journal:

Clark County prosecutors on Tuesday dropped a misdemeanor battery charge against Los Angeles Clippers power forward Blake Griffin.

The NBA star’s lawyer, Richard Schonfeld lawyer, said he investigated a man’s complaint that Griffin attacked him during an argument over a photo taken while Clippers players partied at Tao at the Venetian in October.

Schonfeld talked with people who worked at the club and were in a position to witness “anything that would have transpired, and their statements contradicted the version of events as presented by the alleged victim.”

According to celebrity gossip site TMZ, a man took a cell phone photo of Griffin and teammates at Tao nightclub. After the five-time All-Star was bothered by the flash, he approached the man, grabbed the device, and allegedly “bitch-slapped” the accuser.

Obviously, prosecutors came to the conclusion that complaints against Griffin could not be proven in a court of law. It bears mentioning that the 26 year-old has no prior convictions for crimes and is a devoted community service activist, factors the prosecution surely took into account while dismissing the charge levied against him.

Griffin has averaged 18.8 points, 8.6 rebounds, and 5.2 assists per game on 50 percent shooting since returning to the Clippers lineup on March 15. Los Angeles is 4-1 over that span, moving to 46-25 on the season – just one and-a-half games back of the Houston Rockets for third-place in the Western Conference.

[Las Vegas Review-Journal]

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