Leaked transcripts show how Greg Hardy's lawyer defended the NFL player against domestic violence claims
In the transcripts published by Diana Moskovitz of Deadspin, attorney Frank Maister aimed to discredit statements made by Hardy's former girlfriend Nicole Holder, who accused the NFL player of assault.
Holder and her friend Kristina Laurence (the prosecution's primary witness) both said Hardy threw Holder into a bathtub before dragging her out and throwing her onto a futon covered with his guns. However, in the NFL reinstatement hearing, Maister claimed that Holder must have somehow fallen into the tub on her own.
According to the documents, Maister shared a personal anecdote from his visit to Hardy's bathroom during which he said he tripped on a scale and nearly fell over. Here's Maister's argument regarding the tub:
In Hardy's reinstatement hearing, Maister said on the night of the arrest Holder ran from the cops and initially refused a statement, whereas Hardy himself had earlier called the police and waited for their arrival:
However, when asked by NFL Senior Vice President Adolfo Birch about her left elbow (the elbow that was reportedly fractured on the night of Hardy's arrest), Maister apologized for neglecting to bring that part of the injury report but gave his word that there were no injuries.
From the testimony (via Mozkovitz):
Other moments from the hearing show Maister trying to discredit the judge who initially convicted Hardy because she had co-chaired a battered women's advocacy group while in law school. Prosecutors ultimately dropped charges against Hardy right before an appeal was set to begin.
According to Mozkovitz, a second meeting took place less than a week later between Hardy, Maister, and an NFL senior advisor (and now Vice President and special counsel for investigations) Lisa Friel, "whose job once made her essentially an advocate for domestic violence victims." Mozkovitz notes that the subject of this meeting is unknown.
In the end, Hardy received a 10-game suspension, which was unprecedented for a non-drug or PED offense, and was reinstated into the NFL. From Mozkovitz:
As a result of the hearing, Roger Goodell reinstated Greg Hardy to the NFL and gave him a 10-game ban. That suspension was knocked down to four games on appeal; Goodell's hand-picked arbitrator ruled that 10 games was "simply too much."
We have reached out to the NFL and to Hardy's attorney for comment.
We have also reached out to Holder's attorney for comment.