It's turning out that everyone loved Ray and may face the consequences.
ESPN.com is reporting that the pretrial intervention program given to Ray Rice was offered to fewer than 1 percent of all domestic violence cases from 2010-13. ESPN's "Outside the Lines" obtained the New Jersey Judiciary data.
Atlantic City prosecutor James P. McClain says Ray Rice never would've faced jail time.
The data, ESPN reported, indicates that the outcome Rice received is rare. In 2013, a total of 15,130 domestic violence cases went through the New Jersey court system - 3,508 of those involved a form of assault.
The number of cases that were granted the pretrial intervention program was 30 - although ESPN added that some 496 cases in 2013 were unresolved.
LaMichael James priming to take the place of running back Ray Rice with the Baltimore Colts
In an earlier interview with the Press of Atlantic City, Atlantic City prosecutor James P. McClain defended the decision to refer Rice to pretrial intervention to prevent him from going to trial, saying that the allowance was made after "careful consideration of the law, careful consideration of the facts, hearing the voice of the victim and considering all the parameters."
Since those comments, McClain repeatedly has refused comment to "Outside the Lines." A spokesman for McClains' office did say that "Mr. Rice received the same treatment in the court system that any first-time offender in similar circumstances has received."
But over the past four years, the New Jersey Judiciary reported 15,029 cases of domestic violence involving assault and just 70 were granted pretrial intervention.
Rice's legal punishment has outraged those associated with women's rights.
"I was stunned" about Rice's case, said Donna D'Andrea, a legal advocate for The Women's Center, a domestic violence and sexual abuse center in Linwood, New Jersey. "I'm outraged ... I believed PTI was an inappropriate response in this case."
Richard Sparaco, a defense attorney practicing for more than 30 years in Atlantic County, told ESPN, "I can't say I've ever had a violent crime of this nature accepted into the PTI -- in any county."
The irony is that someday Ray Rice may return to the NFL but those who spared him - from NFL commissioner Roger Goodell to those onward, are unlikely to return to a similar position within a significant amount of time.
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