Baker plea: Not guilty
Asks to leave Fla. for Giants camp
Giants cornerback DeAndre Baker submitted a not guilty plea on Monday for all eight charges he faces stemming from an alleged armed robbery in Miramar, Fla., last Wednesday night.
Baker’s attorney, Bradford Cohen, also filed a “motion to travel” on Tuesday, asking Judge Mariya Weekes of the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit of Florida for permission “to travel to the State of New Jersey for work purposes,” referencing OTAs, practices and the “tentative” start of Giants training camp in July.
Judge Michael Davis had ruled at Baker’s first court appearance on Sunday morning that the Giants corner was “not allowed to leave the state (of Florida) until further order of the court.”
Cohen writes in his motion to travel filed Tuesday afternoon that “New York Giants training camp has a tentative start date of July 13, 2020 at their facility” in East Rutherford, N.J.
The Giants’ tentative start date is more like July 30, so it’s possible Cohen is building in travel time and a two-week precamp quarantine into his estimated start date for camp.
As the Daily News first reported on Monday, Baker has been told to stay away from the Giants’ virtual meetings for the time being and to focus on his legal issues, according to a source familiar with the club’s thinking.
“Mr. Baker is an active member of the New York Giants roster, and is required to attend training camp in preparation for the upcoming 2020 NFL season,” the motion argues. “As an NFL player under contract, Mr. Baker is required to attend All Organized Training Activities and practice sessions in order to be in the condition necessary to participate and all upcoming games for the season.”
There is no guarantee the judge will grant Baker’s motion to travel. In the “wanted person entry request form,” filed when Baker was still at large with a warrant out for his arrest, detective Mark Moretti of the Miramar Police Department had entered “yes” where the form asked if the suspect was “considered dangerous.”
Baker eventually turned himself in and was arrested on Saturday morning on four counts of armed robbery with a firearm and four counts of aggravated assault with a firearm.
He is accused of robbing four alleged victims of money and watches at gunpoint and directing one of his accomplices to shoot someone, though that person did not shoot.
Robbery with a firearm can result in a prison term of 10 years to life in Florida. Aggravated assault carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison.
Baker, 22, spent the overnight Saturday to Sunday at Broward County’s main jail in downtown Fort Lauderdale. Judge Michael Davis granted Baker his release on $200,000 bond, or $25,000 per charge, during his Sunday morning first court appearance.
Baker posted bail and was released later that day.
Cohen submitted Baker’s not guilty plea at 4:56 p.m. Monday. The filing says Baker demands a trial by jury. It pledges the defense’s intent to participate in discovery and also asks the court to require the Office of the State Attorney to comply.
Prosecutors ultimately will determine whether to charge both Baker and Seattle Seahawks corner Quinton Dunbar formally.
Dunbar, 27, was arrested in connection to the same incident and faces four counts of armed robbery with a firearm. He is being represented separately, though, and there were conflicting accounts in the original affidavit of whether Dunbar was armed.
Baker, while no longer in prison, is required to report two times per week by telephone to a designated pretrial services officer.
Baker actually posted workout videos to his Instagram page Tuesday, his first social media activity since his arrest.
His pretrial release also forbids access to firearms or weapons and contact with any of the alleged victims in the case. He was required, in fact, “to surrender all firearms, weapons, ammo and (his) weapon permit to (the) local police department 48 hours after (his) release.”
Judge Weekes, who is now assigned to Baker’s case, is a former civil litigator who worked as an assistant state attorney in Broward County prosecuting shootings and gun violence prior to her June 2019 swearing in.
Cohen is listed as the only attorney representing Baker.