Lawrence Taylor pleads not guilty to rape charge

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NFL great Lawrence Taylor plead not guilty Tuesday to charges including felony third-degree rape and solicitation, ESPN reports.

Amid a media swarm, the 10-time Pro Bowl player and two-time Super Bowl champ left New York’s Rockland County Court holding his wife’s hand. On the way into court he’d been hit with a flurry of questions, including one asking if he was guilty. ‘No,’ Taylor said, ‘grow up.’

The charges stem from a May 6 arrest at a Holiday Inn in Suffern, N.Y., where Taylor, 51, was arrested by the Ramapo, N.Y., police and accused of having sex with a runaway 16-year-old girl solicited as a prostitute. In June, a grand jury indicted him on two felony counts and additional misdemeanor charges. If convicted, he would face up to four years in prison.

‘He’s been very subdued for the past two months from the day back in May,’ Mark Lepselter, Taylor’s longtime friend and agent, told ESPN. ‘I haven’t seen him like this.’

Taylor, who’s out on $75,000 bail, is due back in court on Aug. 24.

-- Christie D’Zurilla

Related dispatches from the Ministry of Gossip:

Lawrence Taylor indicted on felony third-degree rape charge

Lawrence Taylor’s possible defense? He touched himself, not her

Lawrence Taylor arrested in connection with rape, beating of girl

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