A criminal defense attorney in the city – we’ll call him Mike – who has no involvement in the LeSean McCoy case and only knows the details that have been made public, shares his thoughts on how things may go down if and when a warrant is issued for McCoy and he turns himself in to police. Mike?

“The video is obviously damaging to Shady and probably makes his arrest inevitable. The video makes it impossible for his buddies to bite the bullet for him in a way that would not embarrass the police or the DA.

Shady obviously has criminal exposure here but I do think that he has one saving grace.  Normally, the video would be devastating because every prosecutor likes to bring high profiles cases and the video makes it a much easier case to prosecute and win. However, I think there is a strong likelihood that this ultimately can and will be resolved quietly because of the possibility of embarassment to the police officers and the department. When I read the Crossing Broad article the first time and saw it involved off-duty officers, I figured they were bouncers, not patrons. As bad as the video is, three police officers buying bottles at 3 a.m. for hundreds of dollars apiece is unseemly at best, and any trial would mean very good criminal defense attorneys with unlimited resources investigating exactly what those officers did when they were out that night and every other night and every other aspect of their life.  As much as police can blow off steam, I think it is quite possible there will be details which the public may disapprove of upon closer inspection of the officers. A fact that convinces me the officers could have something to hide is that they only reported the incident after going to the hospital on their own. They are police officers, why not call when the brawl happened?  Why not call after things calmed down? Why wait until hours have passed, especially knowing LeSean McCoy is involved.

If my theory is correct, Shady gets arrested and then a few months from now, there is a quiet resolution that doesn’t make the DA look soft and doesn’t embarrass the police.

I think the NFL is his bigger concern as that punch could lead to a hefty suspension.”

Welcome inside the mind of a defense attorney. Just like that– there is just a shadow of doubt in your mind that there’s another side to this story. That may not actually be the case, but even if you think it could be, it becomes harder to prosecute McCoy both in the legal courtroom and in the court of public opinion.

For what it’s worth: There have been no reports or accounts that contradict the official narrative of what went down Saturday night– McCoy and his friends were the aggressors in a fight with three off-duty police officers which left two of them badly injured.