Aaron Donald’s lawyer firmly rebuts assault allegation

Aaron Donald was accused of assault earlier this week after a man, DeVincent Spriggs, was left with a concussion, broken arm and a cut that required 16 stitches following an altercation at a party in Pittsburgh. The attorney of Spriggs, Todd Hollis, filed assault charges against Donald on his client’s behalf, alleging that Donald beat Spriggs in the early hours of April 11.

Donald’s lawyer, Casey White, appeared on 93.7 The Fan in Pittsburgh Friday morning and strongly denied the claims against his client, citing surveillance video that shows Donald is innocent of the charges he’s facing. White says Donald actually helped his accuser and saved him from further injury.

“He actually saved Mr. Spriggs from further injury,” White said. “It’s fantastic, from a defense attorney’s perspective.”

White says Donald was at a party at a private residence above a bar Saturday night when he was elbowed by Spriggs. White alleges that Spriggs “was aggressive and starts yelling” at Donald, leading to him being kicked out.

Donald and his brother went outside later, which is when the altercation occurred.

“A short time later, Aaron and his brother, they go outside,” White says. “Mr. Spriggs is still there. It’s a dark alleyway, you’ll see it in the surveillance video and we have five cooperating witnesses and we have more that are coming out of the woodwork. And Mr. Spriggs starts walking towards Aaron and he’s yelling and he’s drunk and he’s aggressive. And Aaron sees something in his right hand and at first he thinks it’s a gun, but it’s actually a bottle. … It’s a long liquor bottle and this guy goes at Aaron, swings with his right hand, and Aaron ducks. The bottle grazes the top of Aaron’s head. Aaron has a lump on his head from the bottle grazing the top of his head, and all hell breaks loose.

“There’s no dispute that Mr. Spriggs is injured, but the other people that were there were responsible, I guess, for protecting Mr. Donald and in turn, caused the injuries to Mr. Spriggs. He does get punched, he does get slammed, he does get kicked in the head. It’s violent, but the whole time, Mr. Donald, Aaron is being restrained.”

Donald broke free from those restraining him and pulled people off of the pile to prevent them from injuring Spriggs further, White says, citing video evidence again.

“Aaron then breaks free from the restraints — and this is all on video, so I’m not making this up — he then goes to the pile where this melee is taking place, and he starts tearing people off, protecting Mr. Spriggs. He actually saved Mr. Spriggs from further injury,” White said.

Donald told White that he didn’t do anything and that he hired him to make the situation go away quickly. Not surprisingly, Donald just wanted to get back into the weight room and not have anyone question him about the incident because he’s innocent.

“‘I’m not paying anybody anything,'” White recalled Donald telling him, via the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “You and I can walk to the police department and tell them the story. Get the video, get the witnesses, I didn’t do anything. I just want to go to the weight room and not have anybody ask me about this situation, because nothing happened.’”

White said during the interview that he got an email from Pittsburgh police saying they agree that the surveillance video shows no evidence of Donald assaulting Spriggs.

“I just got an email at 8:14 this morning from the City of Pittsburgh Police Department, and I’ll read it verbatim,” White said. “It says, ‘I agree thus far that there is no evidence from that video that shows Donald assaulting the victim. Period.’”

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