Kane's Lawyer: ‘Cabbie Locked the Doors'

Kane's lawyer explains why Blackhawks star didn't assault cab driver

It was probably never fair to assume Blackhawks star Patrick Kane would publicly address the charges facing him and his cousin.

But! We did get Kane's lawyer's version of the events, when attorney Paul Cambria showed up on the ESPN 1000's Waddle and Silvy.

[Audio:  Paul Cambria on WMVP Chicago ESPN Radio 1000]

Frankly, the trick of explaining why a cab driver had broken glasses and cuts all over his face over what the cab driver says was a dispute about a mere 20 cents in change -- well, this is why lawyers make the big bucks. So what's the deal, Paul Cambria? Explain away.

He wanted nothing to do with the cab driver in any way, shape or form. He simply wanted to get out of the cab. It's been revealed today that the cab driver admitted he locked these two guys in the car and wouldn't permit the one guy to stand up and simply reach for his wallet. There's more and more being developed about this.

[Radecki] said he wasn't going to let the one fellow out to get his wallet. He said that in an interview that I heard.

Apparently he said that's his MO. Anytime he takes young people, college kids or whatever, any place at night he locks them in the cab until he pays. His lawyer said this morning in an interview I heard that in the past many of his passengers have become upset because they're angry that they're being trapped in a car and not being trusted to stand up and get their money out.

Cambria went on to kind of throw Kane's cousin under the bus, saying it was James Kane, and not Patrick, who was "involved in the transaction with the driver."

So here we see Kane's defense begin to play out. He'll blame his cousin, or his cousin will actively take the fall for him. In the meantime, his cousin can argue against the cab driver's claim by corroborating with Patrick on the cab driver's locked-door behavior. (Which, if true, is pretty weird stuff.) And altogether, the two can ensure that none of the mess lands permanently on Kane's doorstep.

There are contracts to sign and endorsements to push, all of which are much too important to get caught up in a 20 cent dispute with a cranky Buffalo cab driver.

We'll see where this ends up, but somehow we're betting the cab driver's lawyer will have a slightly different tale to tell.

Eamonn Brennan is a Chicago-based writer, editor and blogger. You can also read him at Yahoo! Sports, Mouthpiece Sports Blog, and Inside The Hall, or at his personal site, eamonnbrennan.com. Follow him on Twitter.

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