The lawyer representing the man suing Scottie Pippen over an alleged fight claims the Los Angeles District Attorney is giving the ex-basketball star special treatment after it declined to file charges.
Camran Shafighi has accused Pippen of punching him at a Malibu restaurant in June, leaving him unable to work.
But on Tuesday, the Los Angeles District Attorney said there was insufficient evidence to bring criminal charges against Pippen.
"Yesterday's apparent statement of refusal by the Los Angeles District Attorney to file charges in the brutal and unjustified attack of our client – a Malibu California resident, Mr. Camran Shafighi – by former Chicago Bull Scottie Pippen– exposes a criminal justice system that all too often supports the rich and powerful at the expense of everyday citizens," Shafighi's lawyer, Lee Boyd, said in a statement emailed to ThePostGame.
Shafighi said his trouble with Pippen at the high-end restaurant Nobu began after he asked for his autograph. He claims that Pippen assaulted him outside of the restaurant and left the scene, leaving him unconscious on the ground with injuries that prevented him from working for weeks after the fight. Pippen, according to reports, told investigators he was acting in self defense and claims Shafighi had grabbed him, spat on him and called his daughter names.
In July, Shafighi filed a $4 million civil lawsuit against Pippen.
"This man yelled profanities, spit on Mr Pippen, used racial epithets and attacked his family," Pippen's lawyer, Mark Geragos, wrote in an emailed statement to ThePostGame at the time. "He should be ashamed of himself and we will expose him for the fraud that he is."
On Tuesday, the District Attorney, according to the Associated Press, also reported a physician who had examined Shafighi determined he was "making up stuff" about the injuries, which included a concussion and seizures that he claimed he suffered from the attack.
"The ambulance and hospital records confirm the gravity of the victim’s harm, which included seizure like activity, secondary trauma, unresponsiveness and altered levels of consciousness. We are aghast to learn that in the face of documented medical reports, the DA made careless statements that the victim had faked his injuries," Boyd said.
Boyd also claimed that Shafighi, a luxury car salesman, had witnesses willing to testify about the incident on his behalf.
"Unfortunately, after repeated offers to share medical records and evidence with the police, the DA did not even bother to contact Mr. Shafighi or us before coming to their unconscionable decision. Mr. Shafighi did not receive the bare minimum treatment due to a victim – the opportunity to review the incident report and have his aggressor tried for a violent attack. Mr. Shafighi was only contacted today by the DA – a day after the DA publically released its unconscionable decision not to press charges against Mr. Pippen. It is altogether unfortunately clear that the DA did not consider all the facts, and sided with Mr. Pippen – the aggressor and the culprit in this brutal attack," Boyd said.
"We have no doubt that had this vicious attack involved an everyday citizen, instead of a famous and connected individual like Mr. Pippen, that criminal charges would have been filed in this case."
Geragos, in a statement to the AP, said his client would sue Shafighi.
"This shakedown artist was drunk, screaming racial slurs, and assaulted my client and his family," Geragos said. "Scottie and his family are grateful to the sheriff for their investigation and DA for their decision to reject these unfounded charges. Scottie and his family plan on holding this man accountable for his outrageous actions."
