You may have seen this:
Washington, DC— March 26, 2010 — Ken Wainstein, a partner in the Washington, DC office of O’Melveny & Myers LLP and attorney for Gilbert Arenas, stated today:
“We are very gratified with the outcome of today’s sentencing proceeding. Judge Morin’s decision was fair and measured; it reflected a deep understanding of the relevant facts and equities; and it carefully took into account both the facts relating to Mr. Arenas’ offense and the evidence of Mr. Arenas’ good character. The result was a sentence that serves justice very well.
Mr. Arenas is grateful to the Court, and looks forward to serving the community and once again being a force for good in the District of Columbia.”
But here is the full statement of what Arenas said to the courtroom prior to his sentencing:
“I’d like to start by saying I am very sorry now that this all happened. Every day I wake up wishing that it didn’t. I thought by lying and screwing the truth that I can protect who I consider family. I’m with my teammates more than I am with my own family so figured since I caused it all, I can fix it by taking the fall. I know it wasn’t right, but I’d rather keep a friend, keep a teammate, and lose everything else.
“I know my actions wasn’t the best for me by taking it lightly, but that’s who my personality is. Anything that will give me pain, like it is now, I try to look at the good part about it and smile, see if I can share some light and keep me from being in a situation like this. That’s who I am. I like to make people laugh. I like to make people smile.
“From the picture that shows me, right after I finish talking to the D.A., the picture of me pointing my fingers up, for everybody else, I’m taking it lightly. But to me, I look at a picture where 14, 15 players are laughing together for the last time.
“That’s just how I feel, and I’m very sorry that I hurt Crittenton and his family, Mr. Pollin and the city of Washington. I try not to think about what’s going to happen to me after. I can’t think about anything that I don’t have control over. If I did have control over protecting Crittenton as much as I can, and what we did that day was stupid, irresponsible. But just like anybody you’re around 24/7, you’re going to have conflicts. You’re going to have disagreements. But it’s what you do after, and he accepted my apology. I accepted his, and I wish that everyone else can, too. I’ve never held a grudge against anybody. If he met me not during this time, he wouldn’t consider me a bad guy. No one else does. I just want to say sorry again that I put everybody through this.”
Laura Govan said Gilbert Arenas didn’t want her and his father, Gilbert Arenas Sr., to see him get handed down his sentence from Judge Robert B. Morin on Friday afternoon.
But Govan had to be there, and when there wasn’t room in the courtroom, she took a seat in the adjacent courtroom, where the audio was being fed to a spillover audience. Her future father-in-law waited downstairs.
“It was hard,” Govan said afterward. “I was really, really nervous. My mouth got real dry. But I’m happy with the verdict. I still feel like people don’t get to understand or see what a really good person he is. So they portrayed him to be monster, and he’s nothing like that. I’m happy that at least he’ll still get the opportunity to continue on, get a good night’s sleep now.”
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