The veteran safety was arrested over the weekend.
New England Patriots starting safety and team captain Jabrill Peppers was arrested over the weekend, and will have to defend himself against some serious charges. Appearing in court on Monday, he was charged with assault and battery on an intimate partner, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, strangulation, and possession of a Class B drug.
Peppers pleaded not guilty, with his next court date set for November 22. From there, the legal system will run its course and reach a verdict in due time.
For now, Peppers’ status remains undetermined — something that is also true when it comes to his future as a Patriot. At the moment, he is not with the team: as head coach Jerod Mayo said on Wednesday, Peppers is away from the facility and will not be back “in the near term.”
It is obvious that the Patriots are taking the charges seriously. Mayo himself made that clear during his Wednesday press conference, when he used the opportunity to make a statement against domestic violence on the organization’s behalf.
“I just want to be clear that really any act of domestic violence is unacceptable for us,” he said. “As a team — no matter if you’re a player, staff member — we’re wholeheartedly against any type of domestic violence. I know the organization’s position, which I fully support.
“With that being said, I do think that Jabrill has to go through the system, has to continue to go through a due process, and we’ll see how that works out.”
According to court filings, Peppers stands accused of pushing his girlfriend to the ground, shoving her head into a wall, strangling her, and pushing her down the stairs as part of an argument. The Class B drug found at the scene was confirmed to be cocaine.
As for the assault and battery charges, Peppers’ attorney claimed on Monday that “we have evidence that completely contradicts the alleged victim’s story” and that he would “expect my client to be fully exonerated.”
On Wednesday, the NFL placed Peppers on the commissioner’s exempt list. For the time being, he therefore now finds himself on what essentially amounts to paid leave.
“He’s not in the building, and we’ll talk about that at a later time,” said Mayo. “As a father of three daughters, I definitely understand the seriousness of the allegations, and hopefully, they’re not true. But we’ll see. We’ll go through that due process.”