A court order that requires New England Patriots wide receiver Randy Moss to stay away from his longtime friend was extended on Monday until March 28 while he and his team were across the country preparing for the Super Bowl.
Moss' lawyer, Richard Sharpstein, said the decision came at a hearing in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, after he learned the player's longtime friend, Rachelle Washington, changed attorneys. She obtained the order on Jan. 14.
Washington's new attorney is Darrell Thompson.
The temporary order requires Moss to stay at least 150m from Washington. No criminal charge has been brought. Washington, 35, alleged they had been in an "intimate relationship" since 1997.
Moss has denied the accusation by Washington that he committed "battery causing serious injury" to her at her Florida home on Jan. 6.
Washington did not attend Monday's session, Sharpstein said.
"He will stay completely away from her and has no desire to have contact with her," the lawyer told reporters. "He's in Phoenix busy preparing to win the Super Bowl and on a day like today his mind is elsewhere."
Moss said the woman who obtained the order has been a friend for 11 years and she asked for "six figures" for what he said was an accident in which she was hurt.
Sharpstein said on Monday that McGill told him if Moss didn't agree to pay "a great deal of money" by 5pm on Jan. 11, the day before the Patriots beat the Jacksonville Jaguars 31-20 in an AFC divisional playoff game, McGill would go public.
"It's blackmail," Sharpstein said. "Extortion is the technical crime."
McGill issued a statement on Jan. 17, saying that Moss' representatives were the first to suggest that Moss pay the woman to keep the issue quiet.
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