With jury set, Cook trial to begin Monday
Sophomore back faces misdemeanor battery charges.
TALLAHASSEE — A six-person jury was selected Friday morning in the misdemeanor battery case of star Florida State tailback Dalvin Cook.
Two women and four men (along with a woman who will be an alternate) were sworn in and will hear testimony from witnesses starting Monday morning.
“I think they’ll be fair and impartial in the case, both to Mr. Cook and the state,” assistant state attorney Sarah Dugan said. “All we ask is that they set aside whatever they heard and make a determination just on the evidence they hear in the courtroom Monday.”
Cook is facing one charge of misdemeanor battery after being accused of hitting a woman after a June incident at a Tallahassee bar. He was in court Friday with his legal team, Ricky Patel and Joey McCall, but he did not speak.
Witness lists for the prosecution and defense were provided to Leon County Judge Augustus Aikens Jr. Wide receivers Travis Rudolph and Da’Vante Phillips and quarterback Deondre Francois are on the prosecution’s list of witnesses.
Wide receiver Ermon Lane was mentioned by the prosecution as a potential witness, but Dugan said she would not be calling Lane to the stand.
Defense attorneys filed a motion late Thursday night objecting to Phillips being a witness since they felt he was a late addition to the witness list July 29. Patel and McCall said they had just received the audio recording of the Phillips interview with investigators and need time to review it.
But neither wants to ask for a continuance with football season beginning in two weeks, and the trial will begin as scheduled Monday.
Aikens said he will decide Monday whether Phillips can be a witness.
Dugan and Patel reiterated Friday that there is no video of the incident. They instructed the jury that they are not to confuse the Cook case with the case of former Florida State quarterback De’Andre Johnson, which did have video.
“We have exhausted everything,” Patel said. “If there were a video of this, I think that this would have been taken care of a long time ago. We have done everything. Some of the witnesses that have now come forth are due to the extensive investigation that we have put in. If this had just happened 10 to 15 feet away, we would have video. ...
“We have an innocent football player who is being accused of attacking another person, and there’s nothing else except testimony. Hopefully the jurors will be open, they’ll listen to testimony and they’ll make the right decisions.”
Cook has been suspended indefinitely by Florida State. As a freshman last season, he rushed for 1,008 yards and eight touchdowns.
Coach Jimbo Fisher has said he will await the facts of the case before deciding whether Cook will return to the team and when he will play.
Florida State opens the season against Texas State on Sept. 5.