DeAndre Baker is a free man.
According to a release from the office on Monday, all charges against Baker stemming from an alleged armed robbery case in the Miami area earlier this year are being dropped – and not only that, William Dean, an attorney who represented three of Baker’s alleged victims, has been arrested and is facing an extortion charge related to the case.
From the Sheriff’s Office release:
A South Florida attorney is facing an extortion charge connected to the Miramar armed robbery case involving two NFL players.
Members of the Broward Sheriff’s Office Public Corruption Unit began investigating attorney William Dean in August after information emerged that Dean was attempting to extort suspect Deandre Baker. Dean represents three of Baker’s alleged victims.
According to investigators, Dean wanted Baker to pay each of his clients more than $266,000, and, in exchange, the victims in the case would either stop cooperating with prosecutors in the criminal case or change their initial sworn statements to police, thereby weakening the case against Baker. Evidence in the case reveals that Dean told Baker’s attorney that his clients would do “anything you want, so long as the money is right.”
BSO’s Public Corruption Unit deputies, along with the U.S. Marshals Florida/Caribbean Regional Fugitive Task Force, arrested Dean on Monday morning in North Miami Beach.
This case remains an open and active criminal investigation.
Baker had been charged with four counts of robbery with a firearm in August in connection to the May incident, and he was placed on the NFL’s Commissioner’s Exempt shortly thereafter.
The Giants released Baker in September amidst the controversy, but he may now have a path back to the NFL; that was intimated by his attorney on football matters, Patrick Patel – who called into Moose & Maggie to defend his client, which you can hear in the clip above – in a reported text message to NJ Advance Media that said “NFL here we come.”
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