Antonio Pierce is planning to meet personally with members of the district attorney’s office “in the near future,” according to his lawyer, Michael Bachner.
Police have been trying to talk to the Giant to ask him about his involvement in Plaxico Burress’ accidental nightclub shooting.
Specifically, police want to know what Pierce did in the moments after the shooting and whether he helped cover-up the shooting. The NYPD expressed frustration with the NFL and Giants officials, saying they were promised that Pierce would appear at a police precinct Monday where Burress appeared before heading to court. But he didn’t show.
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“It was a universe of silence after this shooting,” said NYPD spokesman Paul Browne.
Burress, who caught the winning touchdown pass in this year’s Super Bowl, was cuffed and paraded in front of cameras like a common criminal yesterday before he was arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court on felony gun charges that carry a mandatory term of 3 ½ years. He was quickly released by Judge Felicia Mennin on $100,000 bail.
Police now believe that Burress and Pierce arrived at the Latin Quarter at around 1 a.m. Saturday, and that running back Ahmad Bradshaw – on probation for a 2006 larceny rap – was already there in another part of the facility, sources said last night.
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Club security had told detectives Derrick Ward, another running back, was inside, too, which he vehemently denied.
When Pierce didn’t show yesterday at the police precinct as promised to answer their questions, detectives went to Pierce’s Totowa, NJ, home, where a woman who answered the door refused them access.
Late yesterday, an NFL players’-union rep showed up at the precinct house to give Pierce’s side of the story, a source said, although the details were not immediately known. Pierce has not been charged.
In a statement, the Giants said, “We are working closely with the police and NFL Security. In the early hours of Saturday morning, as we started to get a sense of what we were dealing with, we did, in fact, notify NFL Security, which then contacted police.”
The Giants said late Tuesday afternoon that they have been in contact with the police for the past two days and have provided any information they have requested, and will provide more if requested.
Pierce told WFAN radio host Mike Francesa, “I don’t got nothing to run from. Obviously, it was a tragic and very accidental situation that happened the other night. None of us are pleased by it.”
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The cops are also taking a close look at the prestigious New York-Cornell Hospital that shamefully shielded the Super Bowl hero from cops.
The state Health Department and NYPD launched investigations into the hospital, which finally admitted it broke the law by hiding the fact that Burress – under the alias Harris Smith – was treated for a gunshot wound.
The hospital hasn’t yet made the emergency-room doctor available to cops, sources said. Contacted by The Post last night, the doctor, 44, referred all questions to the hospital’s public-affairs department.
Mayor Bloomberg yesterday called for criminal charges against the facility, which the NYPD is considering.
“Our children are getting killed with guns in the street. Our police are getting killed,” the furious mayor said in demanding Burress get no special treatment for his alleged crime and coverup.
“I think it would be an outrage if we didn’t prosecute to the fullest extent of the law.”
Bloomberg also trashed the Giants after it was revealed that cops learned about the shooting only from television reports hours later, despite the team’s apparent knowledge of the events. The mayor added that anything short of the mandatory 3 1/2-year minimum for Burress, if convicted, would be “a sham, a mockery of the law.”
A member of the Giants’ medical staff was interviewed by detectives after the NFL initially failed to produce two team trainers for questioning.
NYPD officials were livid over the roadblocks being thrown up by the Giants and NFL Security, the league’s investigative arm.
“The police were told they would cooperate, but we see no evidence of it,” NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said.
Bloomberg began the day by lashing out at how the shooting’s aftermath was handled.
“The police only found out about this because of a story on television. The hospital didn’t call and the Giants didn’t call,” he said. “The Giants should have picked up the phone right away as good corporate citizens. I don’t care if there’s a legal responsibility for them to do it.”
He added, “I think it is also an outrage the hospital didn’t do what they’re legally required to do. It’s a chargeable offense.”
Browne said detectives had gone to the hospital to demand information about the shooting from an administrator, but the unidentified woman tried to hide behind patient privacy laws that don’t apply to gunshot victims. That’s when the commanding officer of the nearby 19th Precinct stormed over to the facility and demanded her cooperation. She said Burress had been treated and left. As for criminal charges against the medical facility, Bloomberg said, “I think that the district attorney should certainly go after the management of this hospital.
“There’s a reason why hospitals are required by law to immediately call the Police Department. They didn’t, and they should make sure that the people who didn’t no longer work there.
“It’s just an outrage.”
A spokeswoman for Manhattan DA Robert Morgenthau said only, “The investigation is continuing.”
The hospital admitted some wrongdoing in a statement.
“Not reporting a gunshot wound is a clear violation of our policies and procedures. Mayor Bloomberg has been in touch with us about this matter,” the statement said.
“We take this very seriously, and are conducting a thorough investigation into why this gunshot wound was not reported to the Police Department in a timely fashion. Appropriate disciplinary action will be taken. We are in full cooperation with the mayor’s office and the Police Department.”
Late last night, hospital spokeswoman Myrna Manners said, “Someone has been suspended.” She would not say who.
Burress – whose status with the team remains in limbo – surrendered to police yesterday at 8:45 a.m. at the 17th Precinct, three blocks from the Lexington Avenue club.
A .40-caliber Glock taken from his mansion a day earlier has been turned over to the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms for a trace.
With AP reporting