Hall of Fame linebacker Lawrence Taylor is a registered sex offender who is required by law to report any changes to his current address. On Wednesday he entered a not guilty plea to a charge of failing to do so.
Taylor’s attorney, Mark Eiglarsh, said Taylor sometimes stays at a hotel near his home because of marital problems, and didn’t think the time he spent at the hotel needed to be reported as his current address.
“He registered,” Eiglarsh said, via the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. “He just put an address down that he thought was accurate. That’s the house he’s been living in for years. But he spent some time 50 yards away at a hotel that’s close to his house because of the marital problems he’s having.”
Eiglarsh described Taylor not having the hotel address in the registry as a mix-up, not an attempt to evade the law.
“He took their instruction and still believed that his address was the home that he lived in for years, and he was still living in the pool house from time to time,” Eiglarsh said. “So, he mixed his time there. So, did he violate the law? I don’t think so.”
Taylor has been on the sex offender registry since a plea deal stemming from a 2011 incident in which he admitted to sex with a 16-year-old girl who he said he thought was 19. The charge of failing to register his address is a felony.