NFL player free of Miramar armed robbery charges. An attorney is accused of extortion
Armed robbery charges will be dropped against Miami native and former New York Giants cornerback Deandre Baker while extortion charges will be filed against North Miami Beach attorney William Dean in the latest swerve of a Miramar armed robbery case.
The relationship between these two actions, both announced by the Broward State Attorney’s Office on Monday morning after the lawyer’s arrest: Dean’s alleged extortion was a chop block on the credibility of his clients, the alleged victims and witnesses in the case against Baker.
“Subsequently, the alleged victims and the known witnesses have become uncooperative and their credibility is inalterably tarnished,” the Broward SAO memo says.
Dean is in Broward Main Jail on one count of extortion. Jail records say bond hasn’t been set yet.
Baker’s defense attorney, Bradford Cohen, while having no comment on the charges against Dean, said, “We’re all pleased with the result,” and that nothing about the case seemed right from the start.
The alleged armed robbery in Miramar
Dean’s clients — Tommy Hartshaw, Julius Lamar, Steven Compton — claimed in sworn statements to investigators and in a civil suit that Baker and two accomplices robbed them at gunpoint of $12,500 cash and three watches worth $61,500 during a party at Hartshaw’s house on May 13.
The next day, warrants were issued for the arrest of Baker and Seattle Seahawks cornerback Quinton Dunbar, a Miami Booker T. Washington High graduate who went to the University of Florida. Neither has a criminal history in South Florida beyond Dunbar’s traffic fines in Broward.
After that announcement from Miramar police, Dunbar’s attorney, current state representative and former Miami Beach city commissioner Michael Grieco, stepped forward on May 15. Grieco said he had five affidavits from the same witnesses interviewed by investigators, saying Dunbar wasn’t involved.
Grieco accused Miramar of getting too happy and noisy about possibly arresting someone with a little bit of fame. Miramar police said a suspicious-looking handoff happened with the witnesses in Grieco’s office on May 15.
Accusations of money being passed
Miramar police released a video in September purporting to show payoffs of witnesses, who would’ve included Hartshaw, Lamar and Compton, at Grieco’s office on May 15. Witnesses told police that Grieco stepped out of the room while the money moved, declaring himself not involved.
Charges were dropped against Dunbar after video was released. Though the Florida Bar opened an inquiry into Grieco’s actions, a Miramar police report said the Florida Department of Law Enforcement determined Grieco’s actions didn’t qualify as criminal.
As for Dean, the Broward Sheriff’s Office said he told Baker to pay Hartshaw, Lamar and Compton $266,000 each and their stories would change. Or, maybe they would just stop talking to prosecutors: “Anything you want, so long as the money is right.”
While the Broward State Attorney’s Office doesn’t say whether or not Baker paid up, it does say the three alleged victims took back their accusations “in the form of written, signed, notarized but identical in content affidavits” that said they didn’t get a clear look at what happened, but Baker wasn’t involved and they weren’t robbed of the cash and watches.
“If you have a problem with the credibility of witnesses for one defendant, then you have a problem with the witnesses for both defendants,” Cohen said.
Dean’s Florida Bar website entry says he has been a member since 1997 with a clean 10-year discipline record.
Meanwhile, the New York Giants cut Baker, their first-round pick in 2019 out of the University of Georgia and a Miami Northwestern High graduate.
This story was originally published November 16, 2020 at 12:12 PM.
