The Santa Clara, Calif. District Attorney’s Office said there’s insufficient evidence to charge the defensive end.
San Francisco 49ers defensive end Ray McDonald will not get felony domestic violence charges for an incident that took place at his home in August.
In a memo released by the Santa Clara District Attorney's Office on Monday, the decision was explained as a result of "conflicting versions of the incident, a lack of verifiable eyewitnesses, and a significant lack of cooperation by [McDonald's fianceé], left investigators uncertain exactly what happened."
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The incident began when one of McDonald's guests told his fianceé that there were women getting "too friendly" with McDonald, according to the memo. The fianceé confronted the women, and McDonald then "called her names, indicated that she was an unfit mother, and threatened to take her baby."
The fianceé was 10 weeks pregnant at the time.
There's conflicting accounts about what happened next , according to the DA memo:
At some point they ended up on the couch. Jane Doe said McDonald threw her on the couch. McDonald said they fell on the couch. McDonald tried to remove Jane Doe from the home forcibly. At one point he grabbed her neck, resulting in visible injury. Jane Doe said she was "fighting back," physically resisting McDonald's efforts to pull her out of the house. Jane Doe said she tried to push McDonald off of her. Jane Doe was able to free herself. McDonald said he let go.
McDonald called Sgt. Sean Pritchard, a San Jose Police Department officer who at the time worked security for 49ers home games in nearby Santa Clara. McDonald's fianceé called 911.
When the cops arrived, the fianceé told officers she did not want McDonald to be arrested, but they "[determined] that probable cause existed to believe that McDonald was the dominant aggressor and that his conduct had resulted in visible injury to Jane Doe."
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