Ravens Insider: Former Raven Terrell Suggs’ trial in Arizona postponed amid potential plea negotiations

[ExtremeRavens]

Terrell Suggs’ trial in Arizona won’t be held until 2025 after the former Raven’s defense attorney asked for a delay to give Maricopa County prosecutors time to review a request that could settle the former linebacker’s criminal case, according to court records.

The request for a delay came ahead of a scheduled pre-trial hearing last week in advance of Suggs’ trial date, which had been set to start Tuesday morning in Phoenix. It was also just over a week before the two-time Super Bowl champion was named a semifinalist for the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s Class of 2025.

The paperwork indicates that plea negotiations were likely underway. In his motion for a delay, defense attorney Craig Penrod wrote that the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office was in the midst of reviewing a “proposed deviation request” — a formal ask from the defense during pre-trial negotiations in criminal cases for prosecutors to offer a defendant more favorable terms, either through a less-harsh plea deal or by not taking certain charges to trial.

Suggs’ trial on charges of disorderly conduct involving a weapon and misdemeanor intimidation had been planned for September, but was postponed until Tuesday after Penrod asked for a postponement to gather information for the request.

Penrod did not return a request for comment Wednesday.

The request could ultimately settle the case, Penrod wrote in his Nov. 12 motion, though lawyers “may need to participate in a settlement conference” if they can’t reach an agreement. Otherwise, Suggs’ lawyer will need additional time to prepare for trial, if one becomes necessary, he wrote.

Suggs’ criminal case stems from a March incident where prosecutors allege the 2011 NFL Defensive Player of the Year threatened to kill a motorist and pulled out a gun after backing into the driver’s vehicle in a Starbucks drive-through in Scottsdale, Arizona, where the retired Raven lives.

Suggs, 42, has said through a representative that he feared for his safety when the man in the vehicle escalated an “incident,” adding that he was simply getting coffee near his home and “not looking for any trouble.”

Suggs was arrested on April 9 and released from jail the next morning. An Arizona grand jury indicted him days later, and he subsequently pleaded not guilty to both charges.

Suggs, drafted out of Arizona State by Baltimore in 2003, spent 16 years with the Ravens before his final NFL season in 2019, when he played for the Arizona Cardinals and then the Kansas City Chiefs.

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