New England Patriots safety Jabrill Peppers was acquitted in his assault and battery trial on Friday in Boston.
Peppers was accused of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and testified in the trial Thursday and Friday. He said on the stand that his accuser had fabricated her claims and claimed “she was trying to do all this to mess up my career.”
A woman had alleged Peppers grabbed her, slammed her against a wall and choked her at an apartment in Braintree, Mass. Part of Peppers’ defense involved showing video from the night of the incident showing him asking her repeatedly to leave his home.
The accuser was cross-examined on Thursday, when the extent of her injuries was questioned. She had also filed a civil suit seeking as much as $9.5 million from Peppers, which Peppers’ attorney Marc Brofsky brought back up in court.
The jury revealed their verdict of not guilty on Friday.
“I had to be quiet for three months,” Peppers told reporters in a video posted by WCVB outside the courthouse. “This was all I could think about. This was the first time in my life where football wasn’t the most important thing on my mind. I had to just sit through everybody pouring dirt on my name. Everybody, for the most part, actually thinking that I did these things. But, to me, crimes against children and women are the most egregious things that you could do. And to be accused of that, it just hurt.”
Peppers pled guilty to possession of cocaine on Thursday ahead of the domestic violence trial. Per the Boston Globe, that charge was “continued without finding” and will be dropped if he remains out of trouble for the next four months.
Peppers, 29, missed seven games in the 2024 season while on the commissioner’s exempt list. He returned in December and played two games before multiple injuries sidelined him. The starting safety appeared in just six games in his eighth NFL season.