Thursday

Lawrence Taylor charged with rape, solicitation of 16-year-old girl

Hall of fame linebacker Lawrence Taylor has been charged with third-degree rape and patronizing a prostitute in an incident involving a 16-year-old runaway who police say was beaten and brought to his suburban New York City hotel room against her will.

The legendary former Giant, who has a history of drug abuse and run-ins with the law, made a court appearance hours after being arrested Thursday and was released after posting a $75,000 bond.

“I’m not that important,” Taylor told a scrum of media afterwards.

According to police, the girl was punched, kicked and brought against her will to a Holiday Inn in Suffern, N.Y., from the Bronx by Rasheed Davis, a recent parolee who had been in prison for 1st-degree manslaughter.

“We have a victim who is 16 years old who has alleged that they had sex,” Town of Ramapo Supervisor Christopher St. Lawrence said. “She is not allowed under New York laws to have consensual sex. She is traumatized. She’s a very young girl.”

The girl is one year under the legal age of consent in New York. Third-degree rape is a charge that involves having intercourse with a person under the age of 17.

Ramapo police chief Peter Brower wouldn’t comment on whether Taylor, 51, knew the girl’s age, but said, “Ignorance is not an excuse.”

According to police, the girl said she refused to have sex with Taylor, that the 6-3, 237-pound former linebacker then sexually assaulted her, and paid her $300, which she gave to Davis.

Taylor’s lawyer, Arthur Aidala, said his client is a “loving family man” who did not have sex with the teenager.

“My client did not have sex with anybody,” Aidala said. “Lawrence Taylor did not rape anybody.”

Davis, 36, is charged with unlawful imprisonment, assault and endangering the welfare of a child.

Police said the girl, who lived with her aunt and uncle in the Bronx, was reported missing in March. She met Davis at a Bronx bus stop and had been living with him for the past few weeks.

“He chats her up. She explains she doesn’t have a place to stay. He provides one,” New York Police Department spokesman Paul Browne said.

Davis then forced her to perform sexual favors for others, police said.

On the way back from the hotel in Suffern, the girl was able to send a text to her uncle. In it, she provided the Bronx address where she was headed.

Her uncle alerted New York City police, who found the girl with Davis.

New York’s finest then tipped off Ramapo police, who found Taylor asleep  in the same hotel room (No. 160) and arrested him without incident around 4 a.m. TMZ.com reported that police recovered a used condom from the room.

Taylor’s wife, Lynette, told the celebrity gossip website that she believes her husband is innocent and called the whole situation a set-up.

The former Giant faces a maximum of one year in prison on the solicitation charge, a misdemeanor. The maximum sentence for third-degree rape, a felony, is four years.

His drug addiction resulted in multiple arrests in the late ’90s and a conviction in 2000 for tax evasion.

In 2001, he was convicted of possessing drug paraphernalia, a butane torch and other materials used to smoke crack.

As a Giant, Taylor was a pass-rushing force who redefined the outside linebacker position and is credited with also raising the profile of offensive tackles – the players who struggled to block him.

A 10-time Pro Bowl selection, Taylor recorded 132.5 sacks, a total that doesn’t include the 9 unofficial sacks he had as a rookie in 1981 when the stat did not exist.

He led the Giants to 2 Super Bowl wins, was named MVP in 1986 and defensive player of the year in 1981, 1982 and 1986.

Taylor tested positive for cocaine in 1987  and in 1988 was suspended by the NFL for 30 days, when he failed another drug test.

Davis was sentenced in April 1994 to 8 to 25 years in prison for first-degree manslaughter. He was paroled in March 2008.

According to the New York Post, on Aug. 4, 1991, following an argument at a large party in the Bronx, Davis took out a gun and fired numerous shots into a crowd, fatally striking a 16-year-old boy in the head.