Jury Sides With Burress on Damage to Borrowed Car

Officers recovered two 9-mm pistols at the scene and arrested two people, one of them a cousin of Burress, police said.

New York Giants star wide receiver Plaxico Burress, right, walks with members of his legal team to...

New York Giants star wide receiver Plaxico Burress, right, walks with members of his legal team to the Lebanon County Courthouse in Lebanon, Pa., Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2009. Burress is scheduled to appear at a civil trial in a dispute with the dealer over what Burress should pay for damage to the 2004 Chevrolet Avalanche. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

(AP)

Investigators contacted Burress, who came in with a lawyer more than two weeks later for questioning. Burress signed a statement saying he had loaned the car to a cousin, but that he had no knowledge of the incident and was at practice at the time of the shooting.

Burress' attorney Benjamin Brafman said he was told that at the time of the incident Burress was with the team at a New Jersey hotel because the Giants had a home preseason game later that day.

Giants spokesman Pat Hanlon declined Wednesday to discuss Burress' exact whereabouts at the time of the shooting.

Charges against Burress' cousin were dropped. The other person in the car pleaded guilty in March 2006 to criminal possession of a weapon, police said.

Laurenzo filed the breach-of-contract suit against Burress in September 2006 and it took him until January 2007 to get the truck back from police. During that time, the brakes rusted and the battery died.

The jury decided that Burress should pay the cost to repair the vehicle and the bill to tow it back to Laurenzo's dealership. Laurenzo had sought additional money to cover interest and the vehicle's depreciation.

Burress, 31, a star wide receiver who caught the game-winning pass in last year's Super Bowl, has been embroiled in controversy for months. He was charged with two counts of illegal weapons possession after he accidentally shot himself in the right thigh at a Manhattan nightclub on Nov. 29.

Burress, who received a five-year, $35 million contract extension from the Giants in September, turned himself in on the weapons charges and was released on $100,000 bail. He is due in court March 31.

After the self-inflicted shooting, the Giants suspended Burress for the remainder of the season.

In December, Burress was sued in Broward County, Fla., for an accident last May in which he allegedly drove his $140,000 Mercedes-Benz into the back of a woman's vehicle. The woman's attorney later said that Burress had failed to pay the premium on his car insurance, which had lapsed three days before the wreck.