( CNN ) -- Hall of Fame football linebacker Lawrence Taylor was charged Thursday with rape and patronizing a prostitute in a case involving a 16-year-old girl , police in Ramapo , New York , said . Taylor 's attorney said the former New York Giants star denied the charges and will fight them . `` My client did not have sex with anybody . Period , '' Arthur Aidala said , adding : `` Lawrence Taylor did not rape anybody . '' Taylor appeared at an afternoon court hearing where a judge set bail at $ 75,000 . Taylor was not asked to enter a plea and left the courthouse after posting bail . Seeing television cameras outside the courthouse , Taylor said , `` I 'm not that important '' as he walked away . Taylor , 51 , was arrested in a Holiday Inn room a few hours after the alleged rape took place , according to Christopher St. Lawrence , the town supervisor and police commissioner in Ramapo , about 30 miles northwest of New York City . Police Chief Peter Brower said Taylor was charged with third-degree rape , a felony , for allegedly engaging in sexual intercourse with someone younger than 17 . Taylor also was charged with third-degree patronization for allegedly paying the underage victim $ 300 to have sex , Brower said . According to Brower , the rape charge carries a possible four-year prison term , and the patronization charge , a misdemeanor , could bring up to a year in prison . Asked whether Taylor knew that the victim was underage , Brower said `` ignorance is not an excuse '' for having sex with a minor . Aidala said after the bail hearing that Taylor `` is denying and preparing to fight each and every one of those charges . '' Aidala said that `` no violence , no force , no threat , no weapons '' was involved in the case . He noted that the rape charge against Taylor was for consensual sex with a minor and said Taylor denied it . St. Lawrence and Brower said the alleged victim , since March a runaway from New York 's Bronx borough , was allegedly brought to Ramapo by a pimp on Wednesday night . When the pimp and the girl returned to New York early Thursday , she texted an uncle who notified the New York police , St. Lawrence said . New York police arrested the pimp and called Ramapo police , and Taylor was arrested in his hotel room at around 4 a.m. , according to St. Lawrence . The alleged victim had facial injuries that police determined occurred before she entered the Holiday Inn room , St. Lawrence said . Detective Lt. Brad Weidel said police knocked twice on Taylor 's hotel door and identified themselves before entering the room . Weidel and St. Lawrence said Taylor was cooperative with authorities . Taylor was a 10-time All-Pro linebacker for the New York Giants from 1981 to 1993 after earning All American honors at the University of North Carolina . A punishing tackler and pass rusher known by his initials `` L.T. , '' he was on two Super Bowl champion teams and was inducted into the National Football League 's Hall of Fame , which noted that he `` redefined the way the outside linebacker position was played . '' However , Taylor was twice suspended by the NFL for substance abuse and battled a cocaine addiction long after retirement , resulting in several arrests and a downward spiral that he chronicled in a 2003 autobiography . After kicking drugs , he worked as a sports commentator and appeared as a contestant on ABC 's `` Dancing With the Stars '' in 2009 . Taylor and his dance partner on the program , Edyta Sliwinska , were eliminated in the seventh week of competition . Brower said that police found a bottle of alcohol in Taylor 's hotel room but that Taylor showed no sign of inebriation . Brower said that no drugs were found in the room . Mark Lepselter , Taylor 's agent , said Taylor was very upset about the charges against him . `` He 's worked very hard over the last 12 years to change perceptions about him , '' Lepselter said . CNN 's Ross Levitt and Alan Chernoff contributed to this story .
Taylor leaves courthouse after posting $ 75,000 bail . A judge ordered the former NFL star to post a $75,000 bond and surrender his passport on Friday in connection with an alleged domestic violence incident that occurred last month. Former linebacker charged with rape , patronizing prostitute . Police investigating accusations involving 16-year-old runaway .