Columnist Dean Juipe: Lewis gets off too easy in Atlanta

Dean Juipe

Friday, June 9, 2000 | 10:04 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or 259-4084.

What a sweet deal for Ray Lewis.

No prison time.

No suspension.

No loss of his $26-million contract.

And, in all probability, no repercussions.

Meet the most fortunate man in American sports, if not the country. Lewis, an all-pro linebacker with the National Football League's Baltimore Ravens, has walked away from a murder charge in Atlanta.

Not only that, he has come to the aid of the men who were his co-defendants -- even if, at a glance, it appears his testimony might hurt them -- and, for good measure, demonstrated the ineptness of the prosecutors handling the case.

Yes, Christmas came early this year for a man whose poor choice of associates, if not his own conduct, merited something worse than a tender slap on the wrist.

Lewis, 25, is lucky; lucky to be alive, lucky not to be heading to prison, lucky not to be tossed out of the NFL.

His case has been in the headlines since the night of the Super Bowl, when he and two other men were charged with murder following the deaths of two men in a brawl outside an Atlanta nightclub. Until last week, Lewis was perceived to be as guilty as his co-defendants.

But that all changed when Lewis agreed to something of a one-sided plea deal in which he testified against the remaining co-defendants in exchange for a lenient sentence of one year's probation on a misdemeanor charge of obstructing justice. (He also agreed not to use alcohol or drugs for that year, as if the State of Georgia really cared.)

During his testimony this week Lewis portrayed himself as an innocent victim, a mere bystander during the melee. And maybe he was.

Yet for four months he misled authorities, saying he couldn't share any details of the deaths because he didn't know them. But as part of his plea agreement, he spelled out the particulars and, arguably, at least partially exonerated the two men who remain charged with the murders.

Thursday, the defendants had their charges reduced by half, from two murder charges apiece to one. Better yet, defense attorneys might well persuade a jury that the charges should be reduced again, given that Lewis testified that his co-defendants retaliated only after being provoked.

Ordinarily, when a defendant turns on his co-defendants he has to assume he has to watch his back. But Lewis' testimony was hardly damning, adding, as he did, that one of the remaining defendants attempted to play the role of peacemaker before the fatalities occurred.

Perhaps prosecutors bungled the case from the start by not having sufficient evidence on Lewis to charge him as they did. If so, they more than made amends as far as Lewis is concerned by letting him skate and help his buddies in the process.

There's no grieving here for the two ruffians who died, as they may have brought it on themselves.

But there is some grief that an organization such as the National Football League has chosen to ignore the episode while presenting itself as a bastion of clean living and fair play.

If nothing else, Lewis should have been suspended for a season for choosing the wrong friends.