Celebrity Mound

Courtesy of Interview with NFL’s Plaxico Burress: http://www.blackenterprise.com/2011/06/15/watch-interview-with-nfls-plaxico-burress/

Lillo Brancato — the star of “A Bronx Tale” (1993) who is doing 10 years for a 2005 burglary in which an off-duty cop was killed — has never been in better shape.

He has made friends in prison with former Giants wide receiver Plaxico Burress — who is doing two years for gun possession — in the protective custody unit at the Oneida Correctional Facility in Rome, NY.

“They are buds. They work out together,” nightlife impresario Noel Ashman, who talks to Brancato every week, said.

Brancato, who was able to kick his drug habit behind bars, has gotten a lot stronger and healthier. “He earned his GED [high school diploma], and now he’s taking college courses,” Ashman said. “He’s clean. He sounds great. He’s excited. In a horrible way, he’s almost grateful.”

While Burress is due to get out early next year, Brancato isn’t eligible for parole until 2014.

Trouble-prone Giants receiver Plaxico Burress desperately tried to sidestep the law after shooting himself in the leg with an illegal handgun he carried into a Midtown nightclub – getting workers at the hot spot and at a top city hospital to lie for him, sources told The Post yesterday.

Details of the hectic hours Burress spent trying to conceal his bone-headed blunder emerged as he said he would surrender to the NYPD today. Detectives last night seized the .40-caliber gun from his New Jersey home.

His web of deceit included:

* Taking his gun from the Midtown club Latin Quarter, where workers never called authorities and even cleaned up afterward.

* Spending about 90 minutes making frantic calls to figure out where his wound could be discreetly treated.

* Getting special treatment at New York-Cornell Hospital, where he gave his name as Harris Smith, saying he’d been shot at an Applebee’s restaurant. Nonetheless, hospital workers recognized him as Plaxico Burress, sources said, and the gunshot was not reported, as required by law.

Police found the gun last night at the Super Bowl hero’s Totowa home, sources said, after they were told it was in his kitchen. He was not home at the time.

He plans to turn himself in at the 17th Precinct station house, said his lawyer, Benjamin Brafman.

Burress, 31, will be slapped with a felony gun charge and plead not guilty, his lawyer said.

Cops believe that Burress – who took the bullet cleanly through his right thigh at the club late Friday night – was with teammate Antonio Pierce and an unidentified woman as they worked the phones to choose a hospital, sources said.

Detectives were checking whether a Giants team trainer was among those called for advice, the sources said.

The trio was logged in at 2:45 a.m. by a New York-Cornell security guard, according to records reviewed by the police. The facility is connected with The Hospital for Special Surgery – a popular choice among elite athletes, where Burress was once treated himself. He was out about 10 hours later.

Hospital workers recognized Burress and agreed not to report the incident to police, the sources said.

City and state officials plan to interview hospital administrators about the trauma-unit visit and how notification of police was mishandled.

According to state law, failing to report a gunshot injury to cops is a class A misdemeanor. But when asked about the hospital’s reporting policies, the spokesman said, “I don’t know what the policy and protocol is on that.”

Also under fire is the Lexington Avenue club, where workers allowed Burress inside with the gun, let him leave without calling authorities, and even had an employee place the gun in the glove compartment of Pierce’s Cadillac Escalade, sources said.

A club worker was given the task of cleaning up afterward.

“At some point, someone at the club and the hospital may get slapped,” a police official said.

By last night, cops had seized Burress’ car from a Midtown garage and Pierce’s vehicle from his Totowa home. Prosecutors have no immediate plans to charge Pierce or teammate Derrick Ward, who sources said was at the club, too. Ward denied it.

Both played in yesterday’s 23-7 win over the Washington Redskins, after which former Giant running back Tiki Barber said Ahmad Bradshaw – who got two years’ probation after a 2006 larceny rap – was the third player in the club, not Ward. The Giants last night confirmed Bradshaw was there.

The players had arrived at the Latin Quarter at around midnight Saturday, and all walked through metal detectors – at which point, Burress informed security he had a gun.

He was then pulled aside and frisked, revealing a handgun tucked in the waistband of his sweatpants, sources said.

A manager was called over, and, after a brief discussion, he decided to allow Burress to keep the weapon. Burress said he needed the firearm because he was bedecked in jewelry and carrying a wad of cash.

A security guard was assigned to the players. Burress then asked to go to the VIP area and was escorted up a flight of stairs.

At some point, the gun jostled loose from the waistband, and as Burress – who was holding a drink in his hand – grabbed for it, a round went off.

He was shot through his right thigh and screamed in agony as he leaned against Pierce.

“It hurts! It hurts!” he cried, according to police sources.

Pierce, apparently unaware his teammate was packing heat, was visibly surprised and upset.

One of the guards scooped up the blood-soaked gun and unloaded it. He racked the gun to remove a .40-caliber shell casing, which had become jammed.

At the same time, another worker told Ward – who was on his cell phone elsewhere in the club – “Your boy was shot,” according to the sources.

“Oh, really?” he asked and then continued his own conversation.

Burress and Pierce refused an ambulance, left in the Escalade, parked at nearby MPG Garage.

MPG worker Ramon Yepez said, “A couple of people helped [Burress] into the Escalade. He was limping.”

A bloodstain was later washed from the garage’s front entrance.

The NYPD first learned of the shooting from Giants officials a short time before Burress’ release from the hospital. At that point, detectives contacted several hospitals to figure out where he had gone. They determined he had been at New York-Cornell, but he had already checked out.

Burress’ lawyer, Brafman, is most famous for getting Sean “P. Diddy” Combs acquitted of a 1999 weapons charge stemming from a Manhattan nightclub brawl where a person was shot.

His latest client is “not running away from this,” Brafman said after spending an hour at the player’s home.

“He intends to deal with this responsibly, and we hope it works out in the end. I would ask that the public, the Giants, the media and everybody else withhold judgment.”

After yesterday’s game, Ward denied ever being at the club, saying he was out having drinks somewhere else.

“I didn’t even know what happened with Plaxico until Saturday morning,” he said. “I wasn’t out with Plaxico. I was out having drinks.”

Asked if he would say where he was partying, he replied: “No . . . It doesn’t really matter where I was. I just wasn’t with him.”

Pierce was less forthcoming.

“All I’m going to say is I am not answering questions about what happened Friday,” he said.

When asked how Burress was doing, he replied, “I went to school for four years at the University of Arizona, but I didn’t get a doctorate.”

Aside from criminal charges, Burress could find himself unemployed, as the NFL forbids players from owning unregistered handguns.

Burress signed a five-year, $35 million contract at the start of this season.

Team owner John Mara said, “I don’t know what happened there, and until we find out exactly what happened, I’m not going to make any comment or make any decision about what his future is.”

Cops said they’d been called twice to Burress’ home for domestic disturbances over the summer. No charges resulted.

He was suspended for one game this season for missing a team meeting.

(source)