NFL Hall of Famer Lawrence Taylor has won a lawsuit that tried to hold him accountable for sex with a 16-year-old girl in a hotel room near New York City.
The jury returned its verdict Friday after hearing testimony from the now 19-year-old woman and Taylor.
Taylor gave a thumbs-up to a friend in the spectator area when the verdict was announced. Outside the courthouse, the former New York Giants linebacker celebrated by lighting up a big cigar — when asked what kind he was, a triumphant LT said “Redemption!”
“I feel for what she’s gone through,” Taylor told reporters. “I wasn’t a bad person. I could have helped her … I hope the best for her. Now it’s time to go back and concentrate on my own broken life.”
Taylor acknowledged that he had sex in 2010 with a prostitute. He denied, however, that he ignored obvious signs she was a teen runaway in distress.
The woman had claimed that an abusive pimp forced her to have sex with Taylor for $300, in an encounter that occurred in a hotel room in Montebello, just north of New York City.
She sued Taylor, seeking unspecified damages.
After the verdict, a juror told The Post the jury was unanimously behind Taylor, and some members wanted to find for the fallen football star in as little as five minutes.
“I, and I think everyone, had an extreme amount of sympathy for [the woman],” said the juror, a female 43-year-old engineer from Westchester.
“It came down to a matter of consent because they obviously had some kind of physical contact … She gave her consent by removing her clothes and allowing penetration. There was no clear point where we thought Mr. Taylor should have stopped,” the juror said.