Former NBA player risks rearrest for shouting down witness

April 17, 2019 Noah Goldberg

Sebastian Telfair poses for photos in 2014. AP Photo/Brett Deering

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Brooklyn prosecutors threatened to rearrest former NBA phenom Sebastian Telfair Tuesday – in the middle of his trial – for allegedly yelling at a witness who had just testified.

Telfair is standing trial for his June 2017 arrest in Brooklyn, when cops found three loaded guns, a sub-machine gun and a bulletproof vest in his car. Witness Owen Fletcher testified Tuesday morning that he sent Telfair’s cars to New York from Orlando, where the guns are believed to have been purchased.

After his testimony, Telfair accosted Fletcher outside the courtroom.

“He began yelling things at the witness. If it happens again, that is tampering with a witness and we are going to have the defendant arrested,” Assistant District Attorney Alfred Deingeniis told Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice John Hecht Tuesday afternoon.

“The defendant has acted inappropriately,” he added

Telfair’s lawyer, Ed Hayes, had his own complaint, claiming a prosecutor had improperly vouched for another witness by shaking his hand and allegedly saying, “Thank you man, I really appreciate it,” after the witness testified. Hayes requested a mistrial.

The judge dismissed the motion.

Prosecutors presented Telfair’s American Express statements Tuesday, which included one $680 and one $135 expenditure at Orlando Gun Club just months before his New York arrest.

When asked by a fan outside the courtroom if he thought Golden State Warriors superstar Kevin Durant would come to the New York Knicks, Telfair responded, “No. Too many cops in New York.”