Former Cowboys star Michael Irvin’s legal team fired another shot in his ongoing legal battle as his lawyer held a press conference Wednesday. While sitting beside his client, lawyer Levi McCathern called the allegations against Irvin “nonsense.”
Michael Irvin’s lawyer details ongoing battle
Irvin has filed a $100 million lawsuit against the hotel that forced him to leave in the middle of the night after an employee alleged Irvin acted inappropriately during a meeting in the hotel’s lobby. The incident led to Irvin’s removal from Super Bowl coverage by NFL Network and ESPN as a result.
A major focus of Irvin’s legal team has been a video that the hotel possesses that shows the interaction. The hotel has since refused to make the video public, and Irvin’s lawyers filed a motion to have the video released. According to Irvin’s lawyer, the hotel finally allowed him to view the tape privately with heavy restrictions.
McCathern shared the details of the tape on Wednesday, before calling for the hotel to provide the video publicly again. His argument concluded by saying the video clearly proves Irvin did nothing inappropriate in his interaction with the employee.
Irvin’s attorney’s statement
“This is a story that deserves telling and I’m going to present it in three parts,” explained McCathern. “Michael traveled to Phoenix to cover the Super Bowl, supposed to stay from Feb 5-14th. He returned to the hotel and was having water in the lobby bar. He was getting a lot of attention, he was telling old stories, people offered to buy him a drink, he declined. Two of those men are here.
“These witnesses called in to a show hosted by Tony Bruno and Tony Bruno called us and gave us their names. When we talked to these gentlemen, they told us they were sick to their stomachs. You’ll see on the video, these gentlemen, but these guys and other eyewitnesses, asked Michael to take a picture. He didn’t want to take a picture in a bar.
“This is where the video starts. It’s from behind a desk in the lobby. There’s nothing separating the lobby and the bar. When you first see the video, Michael is outside taking pictures as I described. The accuser sees Michael come back inside, no one in the group notices her yet. The exact moment that they meet is behind the pole. I believe the witnesses will clean that up for us. They walk towards the middle of the lobby. They shake hands and Michael starts to talk to her. In this interaction, Michael touches her four times. They shook hands at the beginning and the end. He also touched her elbow. She didn’t back away or act like their was any problem at all.
“Michael gets woken up basically in the middle of the night and gets told he needs to leave the hotel. He doesn’t know anything at that point or what the allegations were until literally yesterday. We’ve tried repeatedly to find out. Steve Mandell asked to meet with the folks at the hotel. When he showed up for the meeting, the head of security was not part of the meeting. He met with the GM and head of marketing. They absolutely refused to give information. Steve offered the witnesses to be interviewed, offered to talk to Michael. Throughout the week in Phoenix, multiple attempts were made to clear Michael’s name. He’d been taken off of NFL Network, a show on ESPN, without knowing what he was being accused of.
“Obviously, we didn’t have the video. We had to file the lawsuit, a $100 million lawsuit in Collin County, where Michael lives. State court judge ordered production of the video. A few hours before the deadline, Renaissance did a legal maneuver where they moved the case to federal court. They believed things would slow down. We filed for an expedited discovery process which they approved as well. I was not allowed to make a copy, take a copy, use my cell to record the video. Before I viewed it, they tried to search me, I declined to do that. During the video, I was sitting in a room with opposing counsel. I don’t have a copy to even talk to my client about it.
“They’re trying to destroy this man’s livelihood and reputation. Would you rather the press hear my description of the video or just show the video? You know his answer by the fact that I’m here describing it. We’re hopeful that we’ll get the video to share it. We’re far enough along to say that the allegations are nonsense. We believe Michael needs to get back to work and Marriott should apologize to him.”
