Attorney Brad Koffel joined 105.7 The Zone to discuss his client, Zach Smith. Smith, the wide receivers coach at Ohio State, was charged with criminal trespassing after dropping his son off at his ex-wife’s house earlier this year.
“Well, it’s too bad that this has to be dealt with in the media,” Koffel said. “This really, as with any other couple that’s going through divorce, ought to be dealt with in the domestic relations court. But unfortunately… she’s filed this protection order, his ex-wife’s filed a domestic violence protection order, although there are no accusations that he has assaulted her or threatened her in any way. And the reasons there aren’t those accusations is because he hasn’t.”
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His ex-wife, Courtney Smith, filed a domestic violence civil protection order on Friday, July 20 in addition to the previous criminal trespassing charge. Smith is prohibited from going within 500 feet of his ex-wife for the next five years, but that order could be reversed in a hearing scheduled for August 3.
“It’s too bad that this particular ex-husband has a high-profile position, a high-profile program, and has to have his dirty laundry aired out in the media,” said Koffel.
When asked about what he could do, as Smith’s lawyer, to defend his client in the court of public opinion now that the case has gained considerable traction in the media, Koffel said,
“[The domestic violence civil protection order] clearly was not well though through. It appears as though she filed this a day after the story broke last week about the criminal trespass, which also is not true, and… hopefully Zach gets his… day in court to deal with this stuff. When witnesses can go under oath and [are] subject to cross-examination, you can have someone who’s neutral and detached, a judge, decide what’s fact and what’s fiction.
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“But I have zero concerns about Zach coming out of this scathed in any way in the court system. My concern is Zach’s going to come out of this very scathed in the court of public opinion [and] in the media, and the only way to fight these things is to get on the air and push them back in the bottle where they came from.”
Koffel goes on to discuss Smith’s previous charges of domestic violence in 2009, which were dismissed soon after the fact, the details of the incident that led to the criminal trespass charges, the upcoming hearing, and more.
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