Brooklyn attorney Dmitriy Shakhnevich helps us understand the former UFC champ’s court appearance and what comes next.
After the infamous incident prior to UFC 223, all eyes were on Conor McGregor for his court appearance in Brooklyn on June 14th. The proceedings were swift, and it ended with the court agreeing in less than two minutes that there would be another hearing later on next month.
So where exactly does this leave the former champion, and what recourse does he have? We’ve once again enlisted Brooklyn attorney Dmitriy Shakhnevich (a.k.a. The Fight Lawyer) to help us clarify some of the circumstances, despite the brevity of the hearing and limited information that came out of it.
Victor Rodriguez: So Dmitriy - very brief appearance. All it took was 90 seconds for the hearing to begin and end. What exactly does any of this mean? Or does this have any significant meaning at all?
Dmitriy Shakhnevich: It looks like what happened is exactly what most thought would happen. His lawyers probably as soon as they got into the case back in April - or I guess it was the beginning of May - called the D.A.’s (district attorney’s) office and started talking (about) a plea deal. It didn’t look like the evidence was in Conor’s favor, and with a plea deal they save a whole lot, they can get fighting faster. They likely keep him here in terms of allowing him to re-enter (the country), and they keep him making money. And that’s really all he’s concerned about. At the end of the day there’s this persona, he’s a charismatic superstar, that’s fine. He’s used to a lifestyle now, and he’s got to maintain that lifestyle and that means he needs to make money. This way he can get to that faster.
VR: So I guess a less formal way to put this is “they kicked the can down the road“ so they can negotiate a little bit and mitigate as much damage as possible, would that be accurate in your view?
DS: Yes, exactly right, and this is a case where he’s out on bail, right? So they have a lot of time to indict. Typically, they’d have very little time to indict, six days. But because he’s out on bail they have a whole lot of time to indict, that’s why the D.A. can wait to see how those plea negotiations work, and then if needed, if they fall apart - which I don’t anticipate they will - they can always indict him thereafter.
VR: With the next court date set for July, any expectation as to what might happen then? Any estimate that you’d be able to provide us with given your insight?
DM: Sure, I presume that he would need to either plead either to a misdemeanor or a violation which is a non-criminal disposition. And sometimes what they do is what’s called a conditional plea, which is a two-step. So if you plea to, for example, a misdemeanor, then you complete certain conditions and then the let you re-plea a non-criminal disposition. And that would probably be the best case scenario. I presume that plea would include some form of community service and of course, taking some form of community service, monetary penalties just to reimburse for all the damage, restitution. And that would mean that if he fulfills all these conditions, maybe he doesn’t have to go back to court to show all that to the judge. Although he probably will because this is a serious case. He’s probably at this point looking forward to at most two more court appearances.
VR: It smells like you’re trying to tell me he’s not going to serve any jail time here. Is that still something you’re projecting?
DM: I’m virtually positive, particularly now, that he’s going to be doing any jail time. I was always virtually positive, now I’m really virtually positive.
