Although we have video of an unconscious Janay Rice and bits of information, we don’t really know what led up to the altercation between her and her husband, Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice. After the PR disaster that was their press conference, Rice’s attorney Michael Diamondstein did a radio interview giving plenty of “hypotheticals”.
His attorney suggested that Janay hit Ray several times before his one punch knocked her out. Janay’s apology for her “role” in the altercation suggests the same.
via ProFootballTalk:
“This is just a complete hypothetical,” Diamondstein told Matt Hammond of ESPN 97.3 FM in New Jersey. “Let’s assume for the sake of argument, rather than enter into the pretrial diversionary program that [Rice] entered into, we hypothetically move forward on the case. And hypothetically we litigate 100 motions and the video comes out and the video shows — hypothetically speaking now, hypothetically speaking — shows that Ray wasn’t the first person that hit and Ray was getting repeatedly hit but just Ray hit harder, fired one back and hit harder. Hypothetically speaking, and he gets found not guilty. Is that result somehow better? Is it better for the public? Is it better for the Ravens? Is it better for Ray? Is it better for Janay?”
It’s obvious that Diamondstein wasn’t speaking in hypotheticals. He was sending a message while repeatedly using the word that allows lawyers and others to cover their butts. It allowed Diamondstein to say what happened without actually saying anything, technically.
What he said — “hypothetically” — is that Janay Rice threw the first punch. That she threw multiple punches. That she threw punches until Ray decided he was going to throw one back. And all it took was one.
