LT Avoids Jail Again

Already on probation for a drug charge, NFL great Lawrence Taylor avoided jail Friday at his sentencing for income tax evasion.

The Hall of Fame linebacker received three months' house arrest, five years' probation and 500 hours of community service.

Dressed in a full-length black topcoat and sandals, Taylor stood quietly, head down, as the judge chided him for a "reckless" lifestyle in which he used his fame to avoid responsibility.

"You have never really felt any repercussions for your past unlawful conduct, and it could be because of your celebrity status," Judge Joseph Rodriguez said.

In sparing Taylor jail time, Rodriguez cited the player's charity work, 1 1/2 years of sobriety and the testimony he gave to help convict a former business partner.

The 41-year-old Taylor also was ordered to undergo random drug testing, provide financial disclosure statements if requested by probation officials, wear an electronic monitoring device and continue to pay on his tax debts.

Taylor declined a chance to speak in court or comment afterward. However, he was gesturing with his arms and cursing in the hallway outside the courtroom.

Lawyer Lawrence Lustberg said Taylor was frustrated at the house arrest portion of the sentence, believing it meant he would have to stay in his Edgewater home full time. In fact, Rodriguez had said he could leave for medical appointments, work, education or job training and other purposes approved by probation officials.

The maximum for filing a false income tax return is three years in prison and a $100,000 fine, but probation officials recommended no more than a year.

Taylor pleaded guilty in June 1997 to failing to report $48,000 in income from his now-closed L.T. Sports Pub in East Rutherford on his 1990 federal income tax return. He earned $1.39 million that year.

The former New York Giants star came under scrutiny when federal investigators looking into former Taylor business partner Alfred Porro Jr. found a handwritten list of cash payments made to Taylor. The money listed was never reported on Taylor's tax returns.

But Taylor turned state's witness, helping the government convict Porro last year of embezzlement, money laundering, bank fraud and tax evasion. Porro and his wife were both imprisoned as a result.

On Friday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Perry Carbone told the judge that Taylor had gone beyond the call of duty in cooperating with prosecutors, even alerting them to a Porro bank-fraud scheme they didn't know about.

Lustberg told Rodriguez that Taylor has passed every random drug test given him since December 1998. He said his client is making good on his tax debts he made a $35,000 payment this week and is working on several sports and entertainment ventures.

Widely considered the best defensivplayer of his time, Taylor played 13 seasons with the Giants and won two Super Bowl rings. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame last August.

Rodriguez said Taylor had "sullied" his reputation and let his fans down.

Taylor is on probation after pleading no contest to a charge he bought crack cocaine from an undercover officer in St. Pete Beach, Fla., in 1998. It was the latest in a series of drug episodes dating to his days in the NFL.

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