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Message: [QUOTE="lynx000, post: 3595889, member: 2065"] I am up to page 44, but the plea of guilty was not a surprise to me. Whether there was audio or not, or the vision of him mouthing the words, I thought he was gone for all money in any event. The plea of guilty is a damage minimisation exercise to reduce the length of the suspension. I have sat on over 100 judiciary/disciplinary tribunals including probably more than half as chair. The evidence from Mam combined with his very fresh complaint would have been compelling evidence. That it was supported by two or more players who on video are in close proximity would strengthen the case. Add on to that the contemporaenous reactions of outrage from his team mates in close proximity and it was pretty much a compelling case at that stage. Then you add in Leniu's comments post game. Any prosecutor worth his weight would absolutely hammer him in cross-examination about those comments `all fun and games'. He is given an early opportunity to deny the allegations in the strongest terms and in my view makes a de facto admission to saying something. Listening to him speak, he would have been a shocking witness and under cross-examination would have shot himself in the foot. I would be really interested to know the details of the charge. In a judiciary hearing last year we found a player who invited opposition players to meet him in the car park to be guilty of contrary conduct for that allegation alone. The thing that may save him is that it was said to a reporter and not to an opposition player. The incident in the hotel, if he instigated it as alleged would constitute a further act of contrary conduct. Over time you will see that offences of this nature are getting more heavily punished. Gallen got him with a limp lettuce leaf, Montoya got four weeks. I regard this allegation to be more serious than that of Montoya, and then you throw in the aggravating features of the opening game of the season on the Las Vegas junket. Without a plea of guilty I thought he would have been looking at 10-16 weeks (the latter end if the hotel incident is thrown in). The early plea and apology will get him about a 25% discount, so I would say somewhere between 7-12 weeks. [/QUOTE]

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