Patriots safety Jabrill Peppers will face a jury in a Quincy courtroom this week on domestic violence charges tied to an October incident where a woman accused him of hitting her and throwing her down a flight of stairs.
Peppers, who was a captain on the team this year until he returned from a suspension related to his arrest, faces three felony charges: assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, strangulation or suffocation and assault and battery on a household member. He also faces a misdemeanor charge of possession of a Class B drug after police said they found cocaine in his wallet.
Peppers’ attorney, Marc Alan Brofksy, said he expected the drug charge to be resolved prior to trial. It was not clear if Peppers would plead guilty to the charge.
What are the accusations?
Police were called to Peppers’ Braintree apartment around 4:15 a.m. on Oct. 5 for a reported domestic dispute.
The caller told police a man living in the apartment — later identified as Peppers — hit her, choked her, took off her clothes and put them outside. She said she was choked six times but did not lose consciousness, police wrote in a report filed in court.
When police arrived, he found the woman sitting on the front steps of the unit barefoot with her hand over her face. She told an officer, “[Peppers] put his hand on my neck and smashed my head against the wall. Then, he pushed me down the stairs, and that’s how I got these injuries,” police wrote.
The woman had scratches on her kneecaps and her forehead was visibly red, according to the report. She told police Peppers was inside the apartment and was not armed.
While police were talking to the woman outside, Peppers opened the door shirtless, holding a jacket in his hand. He told police, “I know what’s going on,” the report reads.
Police placed handcuffs on Peppers and brought him to the police station to be booked.
The woman told police she and Peppers were having sex when someone called her, which upset Peppers who told her to leave his apartment and go home.
Peppers then pushed her out of the bedroom while they were both naked, according to the report. The woman told police Peppers put his hands on her neck and pushed her head against the wall.
Peppers smashed her head against the wall while holding her neck, according to the report. The woman told police she was scared during the incident because Peppers was “out of his mind and had a serious expression,” police wrote.
After slamming her against the wall, Peppers pushed the woman down the stairs and threw her phone and bag, according to the report. The woman declined medical attention and was provided an ice pack.
She declined to seek a restraining order against Peppers.
What Peppers says happened that night
During an interview with police, Peppers told officers the dispute stemmed from an argument about sex, that the woman was “acting erratic” and refused to leave when asked.
Peppers told police the woman “fell by herself on the stairs because she was intoxicated.” He claimed the woman was making up the story about him throwing her down the stairs to ruin his career.
“[Peppers] states that he was trying to defuse the situation and never put his hands on [the woman],” according to the report. “[Peppers] stated that he should have called the police, but he was trying to send her home and did not assault her.”
A police officer wrote that he “did not notice” an odor of alcohol coming from the woman, or notice her slurring her words or being unsteady while walking. Her eyes were red, but the officer wrote he could not determine if that was from alcohol or crying.
What is the evidence in the case?
At multiple pre-trial hearings, Brofsky, Peppers’ attorney, has said the Patriots player took videos on the night of the incident that prove his innocence.
The videos, taken on Peppers’ phone the night of the incident, show the woman did not have any injuries to her face and back up Peppers’ claim that the woman had refused to leave his Braintree apartment, he said.
“It shows that this crime did not happen, that he did not commit these offenses,” he said.
Jurors will be allowed to see the videos in full after Judge Mark Coven denied a prosecution request to blur parts of it because the woman is seen naked.
“If there’s an allegation that she was brutally beaten, thrown against the wall, [the] jury may want to see if there are other bruises on her body,” Coven said.
The woman who accused Peppers of assaulting her, who both prosecutors and Brofsky agree was in an on-again, off-again sexual relationship with the safety, is expected to testify at trial.
Coven denied a prosecution request to prevent cameras inside the courtroom from showing her face, finding she was subject to the same scrutiny as Peppers.
Another key issue in the case is a civil lawsuit filed by the woman. The lawsuit, which has not been made public, is filed in Norfolk Superior Court.
Prosecutors sought to bar Brofsky from introducing the civil complaint filed by the woman against Peppers as evidence, and from introducing an email sent between a lawyer representing her and a lawyer representing Peppers in that case. The email, according to Brofsky, shows the woman demanding $10.5 million from Peppers through her attorney.
“It’s unfortunate [for] the commonwealth, it hurts their case,” he said.
Brofsky suggested the emails should be admissible to impeach the woman’s credibility, but Coven determined “out of court statements by one lawyer to another she may or may not know if is not fair game.” As a result, the exchange will not be turned over to the jury as evidence in the case.
How long will the trial take?
It’s not clear how long the trial will go, but district court trials generally take one to three days. In this case, prosecutors say they expect to call three witnesses: the arresting officer, the booking officer and Peppers’ accuser.
Brofsky has not said how many witnesses he intends to call.
