Jury takes minutes to reach verdict in Pats' Peppers assault case

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GUILTY. IS HE GUILTY OR NOT GUILTY? NOT GUILTY. AFTER TWO DAYS OF TESTIMONY. JABRILL PEPPERS WAS FOUND NOT GUILTY ON THREE COUNTS OF DOMESTIC ASSAULT CHARGES THAT HIS FORMER GIRLFRIEND SAID HAPPENED IN HIS BRAINTREE APARTMENT LAST FALL. PEPPERS OWN ATTORNEY SAID ALL ALONG THIS WAS A MONEY GRAB BY THE WOMAN. PEPPERS PLANS TO GET BACK WITH HIS TEAM AND FOCUS ON FOOTBALL. AND I DON’T SAY THIS OFTEN. I USUALLY SAY, WELL, MY CLIENT WAS FOUND NOT GUILTY, BUT IN THIS CASE, I WILL SAY HE WAS FOUND INNOCENT. GIVEN THE STATE OF THE EVIDENCE, GIVEN HOW QUICKLY THE JURY RETURNED THEIR VERDICT. QUIET FOR THREE MONTHS. THIS WAS ALL I COULD THINK ABOUT. AND THIS WAS THE FIRST TIME IN MY LIFE WHERE FOOTBALL WASN’T THE MOST IMPORTANT THING ON MY MIND. PEPPERS MOTHER IS AN ORDAINED MINISTER. SHE HAS BEEN BY HIS SIDE SINCE HIS ARREST LAST OCTOBER. I ECHO MY SON’S SENTIMENTS IN THAT WHEN WOMEN MAKE THESE TYPE OF FALSE STATEMENTS, IT DOES HURT TRUE VICTIMS. PROSECUTORS SAY THEY RESPECT THE VERDICT. AS FOR THE WOMAN WHO ACCUSED PEPPERS, SHE WALKED OUT OF COURT AND DID NOT SPEAK WITH THE MEDIA. SHE HAS FILED A $9.5 MILLION CIVIL LAWSUIT AGAINST PEPPERS, WHO PLANS TO FIGHT THAT CASE AS WELL. I STAND FOR WHAT’S RIGHT, AND I KNEW EVENTUALLY THE TRUTH WILL COME TO LIGHT. PEPPERS TELLS US HE IS LOOKING ON SPENDING HIS FULL TIME AND ATTENTION ON GETTING BACK AND PLAYING IN THE NFL.

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After brief deliberations, a jury found New England Patriots safety Jabrill Peppers not guilty of assaulting a woman at his Braintree, Massachusetts, apartment last fall. He flatly denied the allegations when he took the stand Friday. The verdict was read in Quincy District Court at 2:13 p.m. after the jury deliberated for less than a half hour. Peppers, 29, was arrested in October 2023 after a woman accused him of choking and assaulting her during an incident at his Braintree apartment. "This was the first time in my life where football wasn't the most important thing on my mind. And I had to just sit there, you know, everybody pouring dirt on my name, everybody, for the most part, actually thinking that I did these things," Peppers said outside court after the verdict. He steadfastly maintained his innocence and was found not guilty of charges of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, assault and battery against a family household member and strangulation. "To me, crimes against children and women are the most egregious thing that you can do," he said. "And to be accused of that, it just hurt, you know what I mean?" "His story never wavered," defense attorney Marc Brofsky said after the verdict. " ... He adamantly denied that he ever committed any type of assault on (the accuser). And as you could see with a record verdict in terms of speed, the jury saw through this." Watch: Jabrill Peppers' verdict read in court"The jury heard the evidence and rendered its verdict. We respect the jury’s decision and thank them for their service to the commonwealth," Norfolk District Attorney Michael W. Morrissey said in a statement.During the cross-examination of Pepper's accuser, Charlene Jimenez, the defense team told jurors there were many inconsistencies in her story — from her alleged injuries to the fact she has filed a $9.5 million civil lawsuit against Peppers but has never taken a restraining order out against him."We felt very confident no crime had been committed, and whoever watched the case could see there were no injuries to this woman," Brofsky said after the verdict. "And the jury saw through it very quickly — that this was a shakedown."The defense showed videos recorded by Peppers that they say show there was no fight, and Peppers asked Jimenez to leave after sex. The prosecution argued Peppers made the videos himself, deciding when to record and challenged whether the videos had been edited.After the incident, 911 was called, but the woman refused to go to the hospital, and no evidence of visible injuries was presented during the trial.Taking the stand in his own defense, Peppers told the court Friday that he was advised when he was an NFL rookie to start recording if he ever faced a situation where a woman was "acting erratic." "When I was a rookie in the league, we had a lot of rookie meetings, and one of the meetings was on if a woman, if you find yourself in a situation where a woman is acting, you know, kind of erratic, pull your phone and record because that might be, you know, what saves you," he said on the stand. Peppers, who signed with the Patriots in 2022 and was a captain of the team, was originally drafted by Cleveland in 2017 and spent two seasons with the Browns before playing for the New York Giants for three seasons from 2019-21.Peppers was suspended by the NFL for five games and missed two additional games of the 2024 season after his arrest. "I knew eventually the truth will come to light. It was a long three months for me. You know, I lost a lot of my season to this. I couldn't be a part of the team. I couldn't," he said. "There was a lot of things that I couldn't do mentally. I was ... I was drained."Before the start of the trial, Pepper admitted there were sufficient facts to support a guilty finding on a charge of possession of cocaine, and the judge continued the case without a finding for four months with probation and drug testing. If Peppers does not reoffend and successfully completes probation, the charge will be dismissed, the Norfolk County District Attorney said.Full video: Peppers, defense team speak out after not guilty verdict

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