GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — A former NFL player accused of staging a hate crime at his own business is defending himself.
Edawn Louis Coughman sat down with Channel 2 investigative reporter Mark Winne Wednesday afternoon.
Two weeks ago, a worker at a Gwinnett shopping center called 911 to report a burglary in progress at Create and Bake Pizza and Coughman's Creamery on Duluth Highway.
Officers spotted a black truck without a tag and pulled it over. Coughman was the driver.
In the truck were TVs that appeared to have been ripped off the walls of the business.
Officers later went into the business and found graffiti, including what they said were "racially motivated" words, swastikas and "MAGA" spray-painted on the walls, among other damage.
Coughman, who owns the business, told Winne he is not responsible.
"I had good businesses going. I have nothing now," he said. "I'm innocent."
Coughman said he tackled a lot in life to make it to the NFL, where he played offensive tackle for seven teams.
"You've seen online where you are compared to Jussie Smollett. How does that feel?" Winne asked.
"I feel like it's disrespectful," Coughman said.
"He had reported this incident to his insurance company prior to officers conducting that first pull-over," Cpl. Michele Pihera, of the Gwinnett Police Department, said.
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"I challenge the Gwinnett County Police Department. If you think he's guilty of insurance fraud, I ask that you prove it because you'll never be able to prove it," defense lawyer Jackie Patterson said.
A Sept. 13 news release from Gwinnett police suggested Coughman apparently came up with a "premeditated plan to damage his own property" and "attempt to make it appear as a hate crime."
"The brackets (on the TVs) were still attached and there was still drywall attached to the brackets, meaning someone took them off very quickly," Pihera said.
"His place had already been burglarized so, therefore, he decided to get the rest of his property out," Patterson said.
"I want you to understand how hard it was for me to get to (this) point. I had to do a lot," Coughman told Winne.
Coughman quickly became emotional during the interview. He said he overcame having a father in prison.
Since he was 3 years old, Coughman said, he bounced from house to house, sometimes homeless, before finally going to college.
"I worked really hard to not be in the system," he said.
Coughman was in the NFL for six years and then became an owner of a pair of pizza restaurants.
He said that, after he got out of jail, someone vandalized his second business.
"They did some of the racial slurs," he said. "I'm just in the place that I have to rely on God."
Winne asked police for the incident report for the second incident, if there is one.
Patterson said that, because of the pending charges, he wouldn't let Coughman answer questions about the specific facts of the case.
Cox Media Group
