MIAMI -- The trial of the man accused of shooting Washington Redskins safety Sean Taylor more than four years ago was postponed indefinitely Thursday morning when Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Dennis J. Murphy scheduled another hearing for July 12.

The trial had been scheduled to begin Monday. Thursday’s decision was the sixth postponement of the trial.

The attorney for Eric Rivera, 22, who police say pulled the trigger in a botched November, 2007 burglary that left Taylor with a mortal wound in his leg, asked for additional time to prepare because he has been on the case only a month.

The attorney, Judd Aronowitz, requested a trial date in October or November, but prosecutor Reid Rubin said he wouldn’t be able to commit to a specific date until mid-summer because of an unsettled schedule.

“My schedule might be a little clearer by July or August,” Rubin told Murphy.

A new date will be discussed at the July hearing, Murphy said.

Rivera and three other men from Fort Myers, Fla., face felony murder and armed burglary charges in connection with Taylor’s death a day after he confronted them in his South Miami home in the wee hours of the morning. All face life in prison. Rivera will be tried first. Three of the defendants, Rivera; Jason Scott Mitchell, 24; and Timmy Lee Brown, 22, were present in court.

A fifth defendant, Venjah Hunte, 24, pleaded guilty and is expected to testify against the others. All five of the men remain incarcerated.
A gag order in the case prevents the attorneys involved from commenting.

The trial has been repeatedly postponed since the first date was set for April, 2008. Rivera fired his previous attorney, Clinton Pitts of Miami, just a month ago despite a warning from Murphy that the trial date would not be moved again.

Richard Sharpstein, a Miami attorney and family friend, said a typical murder case in Miami-Dade County might take one to three years to get to trial, but rarely more.

“This has been an excruciating ordeal for the family,” Sharpstein said during a recent interview. “This case has taken far more time than it should have to be prosecuted. I certainly don’t think the prosecutors have been dragging their feet, but a ridiculous merry-go-round of lawyers and a multitude of [questionable] decisions by the defendants have made it ridiculous and absurd.”

Each trial could last three weeks, especially if jury selection proves challenging, according to local attorneys who declined to be named because of the gag order.

Murphy decided early on that he would not have the case moved to another locale.

The Pro Bowl safety, who grew up in Miami and attended the University of Miami, had been rehabilitating from a knee injury when he visited his Miami home over the Thanksgiving holiday in 2007. Police say the defendants expected the house to be unoccupied when they broke in after 1 a.m. on November 26.

Mitchell had spent four days at the house about two months before the alleged break-in, helping prepare for the 21st birthday party of Taylor’s half-sister, Sasha Johnson. Taylor paid him $300 for mowing his lawn and other services, according to interviews.

Taylor “was literally revered in the community,” Sharpstein said. “He was a local young man who made good.”

Taylor’s girlfriend, high school sweetheart Jackie Garcia, was in the couple’s bedroom with their baby daughter, Jackie, then 18 months, when Taylor grabbed a machete and went to investigate loud noises in the house, she told police. He died a day after sustaining a gunshot wound to his femoral artery.

Jackie Garcia is a niece of actor Andy Garcia.

“Of course they want to see justice for their deceased,” Sharpstein said. “Victims of violent crime are indelibly tattooed for the rest of their life. Nothing can salve their pain.”


(washingtonpost.com)

Clinton Portis and Sean Taylor were stars at the University of Miami before their paths crossed again with the Washington Redskins.  Portis was the the second true freshman to start at running back since the 1975 season at Miami and led them to a national championship in 2001.  Portis was then drafted by the Denver Broncos where he rushed for over 1,500 yards in each of his first two seasons in Denver before he was traded to the Redskins in 2004.  Portis was a two-time Pro Bowl selection and is one of the best running backs to play for the revered Redskins.

Taylor was a free safety and consensus All-American for the University of Miami before he was drafted in the first round (5th overall) by the Redskins in 2004.  Due to his ferocious hits, Taylor’s teammates nicknamed him “Meast,” a portmanteau word from the expression “half man, half beast,” and in 2007, Sports Illustrated named Taylor the hardest-hitting player in the NFL.

Portis talks about his friendship with Taylor as well as what it was like dealing with the loss of a teammate and best friend.

Run to the national championship with Miami and Coach Davis:
Coach Davis was the coach that brought me to Miami and he was a great coach.  It’s unfortunate that his time ended abruptly at UNC-Chapel Hill because I thought they were going to be a national contender last year.  I have the greatest respect for Coach Davis, Coach Coker and the other Miami coaches.

Coming into Miami with the class that we had and seeing where everyone is today is really something special.  I came in with Andre Johnson, Ken Dorsey, Bryant McKinnie, Vernon Cary, Phillip Buchanan and Vince Wilfork in the 1999 recruiting class.

My freshmen year we competed in every game and lost to the traditional powerhouses like Florida State, Virginia Tech and Penn State at the time, but we were in every game and lost in the last couple minutes. The defining moment for us as a team was during my sophomore year when we were finally ranked nationally in the top 5, and we took a trip out to the west coast and lost to the Washington Huskies.  At that moment everyone realized that no one was going to bow down to us, no one was afraid of us and anyone could beat us if we walked in thinking that our opponents would just lie down because we were the University of Miami.  After that we never lost again.  Everyone on that team made up their mind that we were not going to lose again.  We were cheated out of going to the national championship game that year and ended up beating Florida in the Sugar Bowl.  As a team we were upset with the BCS because the BCS put Florida State ahead of us and we had beaten them that season.  After that happened we realized that we couldn’t leave our national championship hopes in the hands of the BCS system, we had to just outright win so there could be no debate.

The chase my junior year was unreal and we had a couple of really close games but we never lost sight of the ultimate goal.  It was tough but it was outstanding to be a part of that chase.

Sean came to Miami after me and he played both running back and safety at the high school level.  I remember thinking, “This kid Sean is tight at running back!” But Sean didn’t want to play running back- he wanted to play safety.  I thought he was crazy for wanting to play safety but it turned out that he was one of the best safeties to play the game so I would say he made the right decision.

Taking about the dynamic between the older and younger players at Miami:
There was definitely a team camaraderie between the guys so I think it made for an easier transition for the younger players from high school to college.  We knew Sean was a hard worker coming in and the older guys always tried to recruit the younger guys for the track team.  We wanted them to come out, run track and participate with us to help make the transition smoother and in turn they feel like part of the team.
By the time Sean came in, all we did was play basketball.  In the off-season you would find our whole team in the gym playing basketball and working out to build that brotherhood.

Talking about playing for Coach Gibbs:
It was the best thing that ever happened to me.  But I will say that Gibbs ran us into the ground!  Coach Gibbs taught me how to become a man and to take responsibility for your actions both on and off the field.   I have the greatest respect for him as a person and all the hard work and dedication that he put in- not only as a coach, but also as a mentor and friend.  He would always give his honest opinion and had the ability to talk to you without being judgmental.  He cared about his players more as people then he did about us winning games.   Don’t get me wrong…he loved winning too.  He got the best out of you when it came to football, but I think it came from how much his players respected him.
I think the defining Coach Gibbs moment for me was seeing how he handled the tragedy with Sean.  At that moment you realized it wasn’t about football with him, but it was about something so much bigger. We saw as a team how much his faith anchored him in all he did.

Talking about his relationship with Sean:
I kept pushing Coach Gibbs to draft Sean Taylor to the Redskins.  People didn’t realize how talented and gifted Sean was because he wasn’t a media darling all the time when he did interviews.  He was much quieter and to himself.  Coach Gibbs used to call me to get me to tell Sean to call him.

The way that Sean developed as a player and how he grew to trust Coach Gibbs was just outstanding.  He never complained and always worked hard.  For example if it was hot outside then he would go outside and run in a full sweat suit and if it was cold he would come out in shorts and a t-shirt and fight through the chills.  You would never hear Sean give excuses like it’s too hot or too cold.  I remember one day I came in to work out and Sean was there dressed in jeans, flip-flops and a sweater.  He said that he would run with me so I didn’t have to work out by myself.  So he ran 100’s with me and when we were done running I find out that it was his third time working out that day.  He had run with every group that came in to work out that day.  He was just that kind of guy.

Sean was on his way to becoming one of the best defensive players to ever play the game. He left his mark on the league for the short time he was here and it’s hard to imagine the player he would have become if he were still here.

Talking about what was going through his mind when he flew down to see Sean in the hospital:
I remember getting a call from a friend who told me what happened so I went down to Miami and saw Sean in the hospital and really thought he was going to get better.  His vital signs were strong and the doctors felt good about his recovery so I went to the hotel for the night but I planned to go back over to the hospital at 6 a.m. the next morning.  I was sitting at dinner with everyone who had flown down that night and the mood was definitely upbeat because we felt like Sean had turned the corner.

I remember getting a knock on my door at 6 a.m. and I could tell as soon as I saw Mr. Snyder’s [owner of the Redskins] face through the peephole that this was not news that I wanted to hear.   I opened the door and Mr. Snyder was crying and before he could say anything I said, “Don’t tell me that.”

And Mr. Snyder replied, “He’s gone.”

I felt like this was all a bad dream and this couldn’t actually be happening.  There is so much that goes through your mind when you get news like that.  When you start to reflect on your last moments or last conversation with that person you feel like there is so much that you wish you had said, so much that you wish you could have done, should have done, etc.

The week before Sean died, my first son was born and our last conversation was me coming to tell him that I had a son and how blessed I felt to be a dad.  Sean also had a little girl and he felt the same way about being a parent.

You never think that’s going to be your last conversation with that person.  I still remember him walking out of the locker room when we were leaving to go to Tampa, and it was impossible to imagine returning home and Sean not being there.

Everything that happens in life happens for a reason.  The contracts and things you see now would have happened a long time ago because the highest paid player in the league would have been Sean Taylor and the best player in the league would have been Sean Taylor.  There really was no other competition. I’ve played with and seen a lot of talented guys, but hands down anyone who had seen or played against Sean Taylor knew whom the best player to step on that field was.

Talking about how the team coped and came together after Sean’s death:
The team went through so much so quick because it was a shock.  So many people elevated their game and we were able to carry one another.  We came back and had to play Buffalo that next week with heavy hearts and heavy eyes and started the game with ten men on the field in honor of Sean.  Everyone came together and we fought hard to stay in the game.  Ultimately we lost that first game back but we didn’t lose again after that because we all had this attitude of “I can give a little more.”

My pre-game ritual involved pumping myself up with Sean and Santana, and I would talk, compete and argue with Sean about which one of us would have the best knock-out blow.  That was how we would each get hyped for the game.  We were the leaders of that team so the energy that we had set the tone for the rest of the game.  The bond that started at the University of Miami carried over to the Redskins and everyone else was able to feed off our energy.

Football takes a lot of faith because there are so many ups and downs that come with this game.  When it’s bad, it’s not really as bad as it may seem and when it’s good, you’re not as good as you may think.  You have to find steady ground through both wins and losses to not get too down and not get too high.  Coach Gibbs always kept us on steady ground.

Talking about what he’s currently up to:
 Right now I am just training and hoping to return to the NFL but if not I am going to keep myself in shape so I look good on a TV set somewhere!  I think being away from ball for a year has given me the chance to sit back and find a new love and appreciation for the game.  I definitely miss it and feel like I have a lot left to give.


(gameplanforlife.com)

The long-delayed trial of four men in the slaying of Washington Redskins safety Sean Taylor is set to begin April 16.

Attorneys for several of the defendants appeared in Miami-Dade state court briefly Thursday morning to request the move of a pre-trial hearing from April 5 to April 12, which Circuit Court Judge Dennis J. Murphy granted. Barring a delay that day, the trial would begin the following Monday.

Taylor was killed on November 27, 2007, at the peak of his career, when he was shot in the leg while confronting intruders in the South Miami home where he had been asleep with his girlfriend and their daughter.

Four men from Fort Myers, Fla. --  Eric Rivera, Jason Scott Mitchell, Charles K. Wardlow, and Timmy Lee Brown -- face first-degree murder and armed burglary charges in connection with Taylor’s death. Another defendant, Venjah Hunte, pleaded guilty and is expected to testify against the others.

None of the defendants appeared in court Thursday. Murphy has issued a gag order on people involved in the case that bars attorneys and Taylor’s family from commenting on the upcoming trial.

More than 40 subpoenas have been issued for the start of the trial.


(washingtonpost.com)

MIAMI — The man accused of fatally shooting Washington Redskins safety Sean Taylor during a 2007 burglary has fired his lawyer one month before his murder trial.

Eric Rivera Jr. gave the Miami-Dade County, Fla., judge a letter Friday explaining his reasons for firing Quinton Pitts, an experienced defense lawyer. The judge ordered the letter sealed and said a new lawyer would be appointed. He warned the 21-year-old Rivera that his trial will still begin April 16.

Four men from the Fort Myers area are accused of killing Taylor during a robbery at the player’s Miami-Dade home. All have pleaded not guilty and face possible life sentences if convicted. They are being tried separately.

A fifth man previously pleaded guilty to murder and burglary and is likely to testify against the others.


(washingtonpost.com)

A burgundy football jersey with gold trim hangs in Richard Sharpstein’s law office on Brickell Avenue, one block from Miami’s waterfront. A black marker’s scrawl winds across the jersey’s No. 21: “Thank you for everything.” The wavy lines of an autograph sit below.

Sean Taylor.

While the sporting world counts down the hours until the start of Sunday’s Super Bowl, family and friends of the onetime Washington Redskins superstar face a much longer wait for justice to be done.

Four years, two months and five days have drifted past since intruders awakened Taylor at 1:40 a.m. in his four-bedroom Palmetto Bay, Fla., home. The intruders kicked in the door of the master bedroom. Jackie Garcia, Taylor’s girlfriend, clutched their 18-month-old daughter under the bed.

Taylor grabbed a machete. One intruder fired twice. A bullet pierced Taylor’s right thigh and femoral artery, then exited through a tiny hole and stopped in his lower left thigh. Twenty-seven hours later, the 24-year-old safety died.

The autopsy report later noted, among a dozen tattoos, two verses of Psalm 23 inked on Taylor’s left shoulder:

“Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.”

Five young men were charged with first-degree murder, but their trials have been delayed continuously. Since the first one was scheduled for April of 2008, the trial has been postponed 14 times. Defense attorneys shuffled. A gag order from 11th Judicial Circuit Judge Dennis J. Murphy banned attorneys, law enforcement and others connected to the case from discussing it with the media.

The latest try is April 16. Eric Rivera, 17 years old during the murder, is scheduled for trial then. The trials of three other defendants — Timmy Lee Brown, Jason Scott Mitchell and Charles Wardlow — will follow. The fifth man, Venjah Hunte, accepted a plea bargain but attempted to back out. His sentencing is scheduled for April 5.

Reminders of a life
As legal gridlock continues, the lives of those close to Taylor are littered with reminders of the hole left by the bullet. They talk about Taylor as if he is still alive.

Each day, Mr. Sharpstein looks at the jersey. Taylor gave it to him in 2006 after the lawyer and longtime family friend helped get an aggravated assault charge dropped as part of a negotiated plea bargain. Mr. Sharpstein remembers Taylor’s habit of saying “Mr. and Mrs. Sharpstein” and a shyness that mixed with distaste for speaking about himself.

The stab of disbelief from a 5 a.m. phone call to Mr. Sharpstein from Pedro Taylor, Sean’s father, that his son had been shot lingers, too.
Pedro Taylor, the police chief in Florida City, Fla., didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment. Donna Junor, Sean’s mother, declined to comment.

Sometimes Mr. Sharpstein pulls out a photo of a smiling Taylor he keeps in a desk drawer. The photo and jersey remind him of life’s fragility and unpredictability. He thinks nothing can fill the hole Taylor’s death left in so many lives, and he thinks about the “lifelong torture” Pedro Taylor faces. Those thoughts often turn to Mr. Sharpstein’s family.

“Sometimes [Taylor] talks to me,” Mr. Sharpstein said, “and tells me it’s time to go home, to get out.”

The gag order prevents Mr. Sharpstein from speaking about the trial.

Years ago, Ralph Ortega asked Mr. Sharpstein to represent Taylor. Mr. Ortega, a mortgage broker, was an assistant football coach and mentor to Taylor at Gulliver Preparatory School.

“He was not quite like a son,” Mr. Ortega said, “but something close.”

Taylor and Mr. Ortega’s son, Buck, both started at Gulliver Preparatory midway through their sophomore years. They were about the same height and weight. Both were quiet. They loved fishing. A fast friendship developed.

The first sailfish Buck Ortega caught came with Taylor off Key Largo, Fla., when they were sophomores. A few days ago, Buck Ortega pulled out a photo of the 80-pound sailfish. Taylor smiled back at him from the photo.

“Look how little we were,” Buck Ortega told his wife, Emily.

He laughed.

‘Scary how good’

Today, Buck Ortega runs a chain of health clubs near Fayetteville, Ark., after stints with four NFL teams at tight end. He doesn’t follow the legal gymnastics in Miami much, but Taylor comes to mind often. Big hits or big returns in football games on television spur those memories.

“Watching him play was like artwork,” Buck Ortega said. “Sean had a one-upper for everything [on the field]. It was the truth. He was that good. It was scary how good he was.”

Buck Ortega tries not to think about the murder. But that day lurks, like a photo he can’t erase.

Each April 1, Buck Ortega calls Pedro Taylor for Sean’s birthday.

“I’m thinking about you,” Buck Ortega tells him.

Those thoughts are difficult for Ralph Ortega to escape. Every two weeks, he eats lunch at Walter’s Coffee Shop in Palmetto Bay. Taylor’s jersey and picture hang on the wall. So does the jersey of Derrick Thomas, the Kansas City Chiefs linebacker from Miami who died after a car accident in 2000.

Taylor’s old house sits six miles away, an 11-minute drive if traffic is right.

Visions of Taylor on the football field return first. Like his first spring game at Gulliver Preparatory. Ralph Ortega, an All-America linebacker at the University of Florida before playing six seasons in the NFL, doubted Taylor was the team’s best player but then experienced an epiphany.

After the game, Ralph Ortega pulled Taylor aside and told the youngster he could be special. Beyond high school special.

“There’s something with the way you move,” Ralph Ortega said.

Taylor’s face lit up.
Steve Howey was at that game. Then Gulliver Preparatory’s head coach, he moved across Florida to St. John Neumann Catholic High School in Naples as the school’s football coach and athletic director.

Every once in a while, Mr. Howey thinks of calling Taylor. Reality intercedes a second or two later. Taylor is gone. Mr. Howey finally had to delete Taylor’s number from his cellphone.

Each class of freshman football players, particularly the youngsters with uncanny size or wingspans, brings Taylor to mind. Maybe, Mr. Howey thinks, this one is the next Sean Taylor.

Whenever Mr. Howey visits a new town, he stops by sports memorabilia shops to see if they have items connected to Taylor. Mr. Howey has already hit every shop around Naples. Twenty-five dollars bought Taylor’s rookie card. Mr. Howey hasn’t discovered any of Taylor’s game-worn jerseys from the Redskins or the University of Miami yet. Anything Taylor is prized.

That’s who Mr. Howey thinks of when he drives east toward Miami. The five men charged in the murder allegedly drove the same way. Mr. Howey figures they have regrets, sitting in Miami-Dade County jail cells as the legal process creeps forward.

“They took a real special person from this world,” Mr. Howey said. “It hurts to think about his loss, dying the way he did. I love talking about him. I really loved the kid. I think the world of him.”

Mr. Howey’s memorabilia collection includes pictures from Taylor’s days at Gulliver Preparatory and the University of Miami. There’s the picture Taylor autographed after signing with the University of Miami that reads, “Good call, coach.” Another is an enlarged shot that ran in the Naples Daily News.

In a double-overtime game for Gulliver Preparatory against Immokalee, Mr. Howey decided to go for the two-point conversion and win. The ball, of course, went to Taylor. The picture shows Taylor diving toward the end zone, maybe five feet in the air, his arms and legs straight out, the football leading the way.

Taylor looks as if he’s flying.


(washingtontimes.com)

MIAMI -- A judge in Miami has set an April 16 trial date for the alleged shooter in the 2007 killing of Washington Redskins safety Sean Taylor.

Four men accused in the slaying will be tried separately. The judge said Friday that the first to stand trial will be 21-year-old Eric Rivera Jr.
Trial dates for the others have not been set.

The men from the Fort Myers area are accused of fatally shooting Taylor during an attempted robbery at his home. All have pleaded not guilty and face potential life prison sentences if convicted.

A fifth man previously pleaded guilty to murder and burglary charges and is likely to testify against the others.

Taylor was an All-Pro with the Redskins who also starred at the University of Miami.


(miamiherald.com)

Four years ago today, Redskins safety Sean Taylor died after being shot by intruders who had invaded his South Florida home.

He was only 24.

“It flies by,” Redskins teammate Santana Moss told WUSA.  “It’s four years, but it just feels like yesterday.”

Safety LaRon Landry, a rookie in 2007, said he still thinks every day about the tandem they could have become.

“[Sean] was really coming into his own,” safety Reed Doughty said.  “We were talking in the [defensive back meeting] room the other day about how young and good he was.  Anybody who plays free safety for the Redskins is always going to be compared to him and I’m not sure many can compare.”

Not many can, in Washington or elsewhere.


(profootballtalk.com)

The four men accused in the 2007 slaying of Washington Redskins safety Sean Taylor are scheduled to go on trial on Jan. 30 in Miami, according to an Associated Press report.

The four Fort Myers area men are accused of fatally shooting Taylor after they broke into his home. All four have pleaded not guilty.

If convicted, they could face life sentences.

A fifth suspect already has pleaded guilty to murder and burglary charges and is expected to testify against the others.

Click here to order Sean Taylor’s proCane Rookie Card.


(washingtonpost.com)

Safety O.J. Atogwe had worn No. 21 his entire life, he said. But joining the Redskins and hitting the practice field for the first time with his new teammates Friday, he knew wearing No. 21 wasn’t an option.

Out of respect for Sean Taylor, the popular Redskins safety who was killed in 2007, Atogwe will instead wear No. 20.

“The man who wore it here is a very honorable man, and it was a very tragic thing that happened to him,” Atogwe said on Friday. “And it was just something that I personally believed in. Even though the number isn’t officially retired, in my heart — I’m a fan of the game and I was a big fan of Sean Taylor — and already in my heart the number was retired. So it wasn’t even a question of what number I was going to take.”

After picking up the No. 20 practice jersey reserved for him, Atogwe said it took him a while to adjust to the landscape of his new home. Thursday when he arrived at Redskins Park, he couldn’t find the field. He played follow-the-leader through the facility, getting to know his teammates on the way to team meetings.

“In time all the logistics and things of that nature will clear up and this will feel like home,” Atogwe said. “The guys have welcomed me and I’m excited about that and I’m appreciative of that.I will get to know everybody I’m a pretty personable person, and hopefully they get to know me so we can come together and get this thing rolling.”

Click here to order Sean Taylor’s proCane Rookie Card.


(washingtonpost.com)

A few days after the Redskins’ Sean Taylor was killed in Miami, Florida, a spray-painted memorial mural, written in the team’s colors, appeared on the northbound wall of the Brookland Metro station where it remains today, untouched. The mural, painted in burgundy, gold, and white, is seen by tens of thousands of Red Line riders going in and out of the city every day.

Taylor, 24, was in his fourth year with the Redskins. In the twelfth week of the 2007 season he had 5 interceptions — third in the league, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. His reputation as one of the hardest hitting players in the league and his all-out style of play had endeared him to fans.

News of his death during a home invasion on November 27, 2007 quickly spread across the region, leaving his teammates and fans in a state of disbelief and grief. While the Redskins organization honored Taylor’s memory on the field, an established DC graffiti artist took to the red line in a public display of deference. 

“The Red Line has been a hot spot since the mid-80’s, but became the spot in the early 90’s,” according to Roger Gastman, a Bethesda native and author of Free Agents: A History of DC Graffiti and the forthcoming The History of American Graffiti. “If you wanted to be someone in the DC graffiti scene, you had to hit the Red Line.”

“The Brookland station, you can walk right up to it. It is a very good location, if you can pull it off,” says Gastman.

“The best writers interact with their environment,” asserts Gastman, citing graffiti as the fastest growing art movement of the past forty years.
Beginning his graffiti career with the tag of “CERT” in 1992 at the age of 14, the well-known writer of the Sean Taylor mural declined an interview request for this article.

“The Red Line was CERT’s backyard. He basically lived there and owned it. CERT could disappear, but, to this day he holds enough respect that his spots will remain untouched for years to come,” reads CERT’s profile in Free Agents that describes his graffiti as “hardcore and illegal” and “always in highly visible spots.”

“Graffiti to me is my childhood, my teen years. That’s what I was about 100 percent. But I’m still representing. Don’t count me out. Don’t forget me. I can come back at any moment and in a month I’ll take king of the Red Line again,” contends CERT in the 2001 book.

“Whatever his reasons for slowing down, CERT is a true D.C. king. It’s time for him to sit back and let the mark he left on the city soak in. And like he said, don’t count him out. With a closet full of paint and heart that’s true to the game, CERT will be back,” Gastman foretold in the conclusion of CERT’s profile.

The mural has remained untouched since its appearance more than 3 years ago.  Gastman says there is a code among writers that is being followed. 

“Brookland station can be considered a museum for DC graffiti, because of the pieces that have endured over the years,” says Saaret Yoseph, a graduate student at Georgetown University. “Brookland is unique in that the art is eye level. The graffiti is looking right at you as you wait for your train.”

Yoseph is directing, “The Red Line D.C Project,” a documentary exploring the “communal experience” of graffiti on the Red Line as a public art space. It will be released later this year.  



Rider Reactions

“What struck me about that one was here was a memorial to someone we actually knew–or knew of. So much graffiti is inscrutable. Who are the people named there? What’s the purpose of it? But this was one we could grasp immediately,” said John Kelly, a writer for The Washington Post and Red Line rider since 1983. “And then a few years later, just across the platform was another one that fell into that category: some memorial paint for Michael Jackson.”

On a recent morning at the Brookland Station, riders’ reactions to the graffiti suggested a sense of pride in the station’s distinction as the home of the Sean Taylor mural.

“If they cleaned it up we would be really hurt behind that one,” said Milford Obendorf, a Brookland resident waiting with his wife on the northbound train to Silver Spring.

“It’s been here since he passed away. People come here to look at it,” said Marquette Obendorf.

“It’s real creative,” said LaWanda Swain, a custodian with Metro for 6 years. “He played here so they have respect for him.”

“It spices things up. If they cleaned it up then you’d be staring at a wall for 15 minutes,” said Mike Young, 20, a cell phone sales rep downtown. “People remember Sean Taylor because he shouldn’t have died. He hit the hardest like when he cracked yungin’ in the Pro Bowl.”

Numerous videos on YouTube have compiled Taylor’s highlights as a Redskin, including a tackle of punter Brian Moorman in the Pro Bowl that lifted Moorman off his feet to a point where he was parallel to the field.

However, some riders expressed frustration with the station’s illegal art.

“It grows and grows until they clean it up,” said Joe, an older man in a white dress shirt, a Brookland resident for more than two decades. “The kids that do it are talented, but they can put their talents to better use.”

As a regular rider of the red line for more than a decade, I can remember the walls at Brookland being cleaned, “buffed” in the language of graffiti, about five years ago.

“The graffiti is on CSX property, not Metro property. Typically, when we become aware of graffiti, our goal is to remove it within 24 hours,” said Angela Gates, a Media Relations officer with Metro.

CSX did not respond to email and phone call requests for comment.

“There have been no graffiti-related arrests or citations in the last year at Brookland-CUA,” said Gates who emphasized that the property is outside of Metro’s jurisdiction.

With no apparent plans to clean the walls and a lack of enforcement around graffiti, the Sean Taylor mural will continue to be a distinctive cultural landmark for the Brookland Metro station.

Click here to order Sean Taylor’s proCane Rookie Card.


(thewashingtonsyndicate.com)

Sean Taylor
Sean Taylor of the Washington Redskins was shot in his home when he was just 24 years old. The highly-rated safety in the NFL was the victim of a forced entry into his home and a bullet pierced an artery in his leg in November of 2007.

Four people were arrested in connection to the death of Taylor. Investigators say they were intent on burglarizing Taylor's home but were surprised when he was home in Miami instead of with the team. Taylor was leading the league in interceptions at the time of his death.

To see the rest click here.


(yahoosports.com)

Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk had Bills punter Brian Moorman on his PFT Live podcast show thing today, mainly because Moorman is doing good deeds to help the folks in Joplin, Missouri. But the conversation turned -- as I imagine conversations with Moorman often do -- to the ENORMOUS hit that Redskins safety Sean Taylor put on Moorman on a fake punt in the 2007 Pro Bowl.

(You can watch that hit above, and I recommend it. It's quite possibly the greatest thing ever to happen in a Pro Bowl in the game's sixty year history.)

Seeing that hit, It would be easy to believe that Moorman has no recollection of it whatsoever, but it turns out that his memories of the play are pretty sharp -- and pretty entertaining. First, though, here's Moorman on the legacy of the hit:

That definitely has given me an extended fifteen seconds of fame, because I think that every year a rookie comes in and says, 'Hey, you're The Guy!' It's kind of a funny thing for me, and obviously you can still find it on YouTube, so people still see it. I get somebody, probably five or ten people a year that say something to me out in public or whatever. So I think that's gonna stick with me a while.

That is what it is. It was a good experience and I'm just glad I got up 'cause it was the biggest shot I ever took in my football career.

Florio follows up by talking about what an enormous hit it was -- "full postseason speed," he says -- and asks Moorman what it felt like to get drilled like that.

Moorman:

I told our Reebok rep that it was a perfect commercial for their shoes, because they saw the bottom of my shoes immediately. I didn't know what was -- how that was gonna happen. But I remember a flash of John Lynch coming and making a block, I believe on Derrick Brooks -- I've actually got a picture of that [Ed. Note: It's probably the AP Photo to the right.]-- and I remember that flash, and I thought, 'Oh, I think I can get this,' so I cut up behind him and that was the last thing I remembered.

Next thing you know, I was down there and [I knew] I've gotta pop up quick. I didn't wanna give him any satisfaction in the fact that he took me out like that. So ... luckily he caught me -- it was a clean hit; he caught me kind of in the lower part of the shoulder, not too much in the head, and I was able to get up from it. But I was definitely lucky; he did put a pretty good lick on me.

I went out and congratulated him on the hit just so he knew I was up. I just wanted to make sure he knew that I wasn't still laying there, and I just said, 'Hey, nice hit. Well done.' He actually even ripped a hole in my jersey, so I've got that thing framed up and a picture beside it, so I've got something to remember it by.

I imagine Moorman will be holding onto that Pro Bowl jersey for awhile, but you can bid on one of his autographed, game-worn jerseys with all proceeds going to Red Cross Joplin Relief. And here's the relevant section of PFT Live, if you're the sort of person who'd rather watch the interview than read my transcription.

(redskins.com)

Remember what ESPN radio noisemaker Colin Cowherd said about Sean Taylor after his death? If you need a reminder, here you go:

Sean Taylor, great player has a history of really really bad judgment, really really bad judgment. Cops, assault, spitting, DUI. I’m supposed to believe his judgment got significantly better in two years, from horrible to fantastic? ‘But Colin he cleaned up his act.’ Well yeah, just because you clean the rug doesn’t mean you got everything out. Sometimes you’ve got stains, stuff so deep it never ever leaves....Just because somebody cleans the rugs doesn’t mean there aren’t stains. No matter what those commercials, OxiClean, tell you on cable TV, some stains you can’t get out. And if you have bad judgment for 23 years of your life, even if you clean it up, your judgment doesn’t get great over night.

Now, a few days after this speech, when it became clear that in this particular case Sean Taylor had not done anything wrong at all, Cowherd returned to the topic, and seemed to sort of admit he had been wrong

We are always opinionated and always aggressive and we think, on Sean Taylor, absolutely reasonable, though clearly at this point to some degree, wrong. And I’ve got no problems saying it. Well, I do have a problem saying it, I hate being wrong. Who likes being wrong? I don’t like being wrong.”

A good many Redskins fans, of course, never forgave Cowherd. But I always figured this was pure radio shtick, an effort to be typically controversial just to get people talking about him, even if it was in outraged tones.

But maybe I was wrong. Maybe Cowherd really believes in stains so deep you can't get ‘em out. Because he discussed the issue at length in the new ESPN oral history book, and he’s back to defending his original point of view.

“Now with the Sean Taylor thing, my superior, Mo Davenport, an African American, listened to it and had no problem with it. A lot of it was turned into a racial issue. ‘Insensitive.’ And I would say it again. Sean Taylor came out of the University of Miami with a reputation. I really leaned on African American journalists — Stephen A. Smith, Michael Wilbon — who were critical of him. This is a guy who had an SUV riddled with bullets several years earlier. His best friend told him, ‘Stay out of Miami.’ If you listen to my commentary and go to the Internet, it was warranted, it was reasonable, and yes, it could have been wrong. But I’m not in the business of reviewing everything before I talk about it. I’m in talk radio. A story breaks, I need an opinion. I’m not ESPN News.

I came out later and said, ‘Here are the facts. Here is the truth.’ I never really apologized. I came on the air and said, ‘Many of you were offended. You were offended by my tone or tenor. I understand it. That’s my Colin tenor. Some people love it. Some people hate it. But I’m not going to apologize for my tone. Go back and look at exactly what I said.’

One of the comments that bothered people — people said, ‘He turned his life around.’ And I came out and said, ‘Hey, a lot of times you clean the carpet, but you don’t get all the stains out.’ And people are like, ‘What does that mean?’ Well, just because you turn your life around doesn’t mean everybody else is going to accept your apology. I mean, Sean had made a lot of enemies in his life apparently.”

So, with three years to think about it, that’s what Cowherd came up with. Sean had made a lot of enemies in his life apparently.

Click here to order Sean Taylor’s proCane Rookie Card.


(washingtonpost.com)

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In the name of censorship (apparently), a Florida appellate court has denied an appeal from three media outlets to open the murder trial of former Redskins CB Sean Taylor.

A Miami-Dade circuit judge ruled last month that the trial would not be open to the media and the public because he worried that the four defendants accused of killing Taylor would not receive a fair trial otherwise.

The Miami Herald – along with the Washington Post and Miami’s WPLG Channel 10 – appealed that decision, but the three-judge appellate court denied it and didn’t issue a written opinion (see, the court is even censoring ITSELF!!!).

“I am shocked,” Karen Williams Kammer, the attorney representing the TV station, told the Washington Post. “In my 24 years practicing in this area in South Florida, aside from hearings involving children in child custody cases, I have never seen a judge close a hearing, especially when there has been no evidence presented by those wanting it closed to justify its being closed… For that reason, I find this very disappointing.”

As the Post points out, the media outlets could continue their appeal – either with the entire 10-member appellate court or with the Florida supreme court. Hopefully, they will, and hopefully, the district court’s decision will be overturned.

We, the public, have a right to know what is happening.

Click here to order Sean Taylor’s proCane Rookie Card.



(cbssports.com)

MIAMI -- Reporters and cameras will be barred from a key evidence hearing in the case against four men accused of fatally shooting former Washington Redskins star Sean Taylor during a botched 2007 robbery at his home, a judge ruled Wednesday.

Circuit Judge Dennis Murphy agreed with defense attorneys that the hearing on whether to allow purported confessions or incriminating statements at trial should be closed so that prospective jurors aren't exposed to material that might skew their view of the high-profile case.

"There is not an automatic right to be present for pretrial hearings," Murphy said. "Closure is necessary for these defendants to receive a fair trial."

Murphy set the closed hearing for May 20.

A trial date has not yet been scheduled for the four men, all from the Fort Myers area: 20-year-old Eric Rivera Jr., identified by police as the shooter; Charles Wardlow, 21; Jason Mitchell, 23; and 19-year-old Timmy Lee Brown.

A fifth suspect, 23-year-old Venjah Hunte, pleaded guilty to murder and burglary charges and is expected to testify against the others.

Taylor, an All-Pro safety with the Redskins who also starred at the University of Miami, bled to death after he was shot in the thigh during a confrontation with the robbers at his Miami-area home. Police have said the group did not expect Taylor to be home because the Redskins had a game that weekend, but he was out with an injury.

Attorneys for The Miami Herald and Post-Newsweek tried to persuade Murphy not to close the evidence hearing. They said Miami's population is easily large enough to find jurors not exposed to reporting about the Taylor case and that defense lawyers hadn't provided any proof that media attention would be pervasive.

"Common sense says not everyone is going to read the articles, and common sense says not everyone is going to retain it," said Herald attorney Scott Ponce, adding that questioning during jury selection is sufficient to weed out biased jurors.

But Murphy, who has also issued a gag order on attorneys in the case and sealed key documents, would have none of it. He pointed out that several reporters were in the courtroom Wednesday.

"That's evidence, right?" he said. "As we get closer to trial, I have no doubt we will have pervasive and extensive coverage of this case."

The four men each face potential life sentences if convicted. Prosecutors cannot seek the death penalty under U.S. Supreme Court rulings because the alleged triggerman, Rivera, was only 17 when the crime was committed.



(espn.com)

MIAMI The accused shooter in the 2007 killing of former Washington Redskins star Sean Taylor wants the media barred from a key hearing.
A Miami-Dade County judge set a hearing Wednesday on the request from 20-year-old Eric Rivera Jr. His attorney contends that an upcoming hearing on what evidence will be allowed could jeopardize Rivera's chances for a fair trial.

Attorneys for The Miami Herald oppose closing the hearing, arguing there's no evidence media coverage will automatically taint a potential jury pool.

Rivera is one of five people accused in the killing of Taylor during a botched robbery at his Miami-area home.

Taylor was an All-Pro safety with the Redskins who starred in college at the University of Miami.

A trial in the case is expected later this year.

Click here to order Sean Taylor’s proCane Rookie Card.



(bellinghamherald.com)