Patrick Patel and Brad Cohen, the attorneys representing New York Giants cornerback DeAndre Baker, continue to maintain their client’s innocence, claiming that information leaked to the New York Daily News does nothing to incriminate their client in a May armed robbery, but will help exonerate him.
Frustrated with the media coverage since the Daily News report, Patel called into WFAN earlier this week to “set the record straight.”
During his brief appearance on the radio program, Patel expressed “concern” over Pat Leonard’s report and how the Daily News came about obtaining information on an ongoing investigation in the first place.
“I’m very concerned about that Pat Leonard [report], because the search warrant he says the Daily News got through an OPRA (Open Public Records Act) request is a search warrant on an ongoing criminal investigation,” Patel said. “Neither Brad (Cohen, Baker’s co-attorney in the matter) nor I have that search warrant yet, so we intend to file motions into the court to find out how that warrant was obtained – but I’m not worried about that, because if one reads the search warrant carefully, they will see the text messages going back and forth between Baker and Johnson…those were orchestrated by Cohen and I to flush these extortionists out.”
Patel also doubled-down on his previous statements, saying both the local police and the FBI were completely aware of the texts and direct messages being sent by Baker, who was at Patel’s home at the time.
Patel explains that police even triangulated Baker’s cellphone to determine he was, in fact, where he said he was.
“Cohen and I reported to the FBI and to the detective what was going on; the detective triangulated Mr. Baker’s phone to my house in Fort Lauderdale, where it was myself, Brad, and DeAndre texting [Dominic] Johnson, and the reason we did that was simple,” Patel said. “If there’s a hostage situation and they call you, you don’t say, ‘hang up the phone.’ What do you say? ‘Where are you, how much, give me proof of life, give me information.’ The text messages going from Baker to Johnson were to solicit the information of the extortionists. We knew they were going to [Dunbar’s attorney Michael] Grieco’s office, because that’s what was told to us, and we reported that. Never did Baker, nor his attorneys, pay the extortionists any money, and the reason we didn’t is because we didn’t need the affidavits.”
What Patel says seems cut and dry, but the same could not be said for Quinton Dunbar and his representation.
Shortly after the Daily News report dropped, Dunbar and his attorney, Michael Grieco, parted ways, while the Florida bar reportedly opened an investigation into Grieco.
Despite that seemingly concerning revelation, Patel remains confident that he and Cohen have acted appropriately and legally, and that Baker will be deemed innocent in the end.
“Baker was not involved with any robbery that night, 100 percent no, and we’ve said that from day one,” Patel said.
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