Lawrence Taylor on prostitutes: 'I don't card them'

Lawrence Taylor explained his side of the story on Tuesday, hours after being sentenced to six years probation on a sexual misconduct conviction.

Taylor admitted he had used prostitutes in the past before his May 2010 arrest for having sex with an underage girl. And, in an interview with Fox News, he maintained he thought that the unnamed 16-year-old girl he was with was of legal age.

CAPTIONBy Seth Wenig, AP

Said Taylor:

"I'm not the cause of prostitution. And sometimes I make mistakes and I may go out there, but I didn't pick her up at no playground. She wasn't hiding behind the school bus or getting off a school bus. This is a working girl that came to my room. And I don't know what her age was. I asked her age. She told me she was 19. It is what it is."

Taylor said he had been on the road "10 or 11 days" before the incident and asked a friend to set him up with a callgirl. (Watch the video.)

"It's the world of prostitution," he told Fox. "You never know what you're gonna get. Is it gonna be a pretty girl, an ugly girl or whatever it's gonna be."

He was asked if he knew it could be a young girl coming to his room.

"You can only ask," Taylor said. "I don't card them. I don't ask for birth certificate."

Taylor avoided a jail sentence as prosecutors said he was helpful to them in other cases, including one against Rasheed Davis, the man who allegedly forced Taylor's victim into prostituion.

The unnamed girl appeared at the courthouse Tuesday for Taylor's sentencing and said she thought he should have gone to jail.

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