Lawyers for Green Bay Packers running back Josh Jacobs say he has a “substantial body of tangible evidence” disputing the allegations three women made against him while police were investigating his battery case.
Jacobs pleaded no contest on Sept. 10 to misdemeanor charges of battery and criminal damage to property stemming from a May altercation with his then-girlfriend, who said he threw her to the ground. In response to a public records request,
the Hobart-Lawrence (Wisconsin) Police Department released records from their investigation Friday night that included the accounts of three other women who reported similar allegations from years before.
After spending the first six games of the season on the commissioner’s exempt list, which prevented him from playing or practicing, Jacobs has returned to play in the Packers’ last two games. The NFL has said its investigation into Jacobs is ongoing, which means he still could be subject to more discipline from the league.
Jacobs’ lawyers — David Z. Chesnoff, Richard A. Schonfeld and Clarence F. Duchac III — issued a statement Saturday noting that the Brown County District Attorney’s office had “these uncorroborated, old, and previously unreported allegations for months.” They issued another statement Sunday that went into more detail.
“Josh took responsibility for what happened in May,” the lawyers said. “He entered into an agreement with prosecutors for two misdemeanors, and he is meeting the court’s requirements.
“The three accounts are old, are hearsay, and easily disproven, yet released to the media by police without any investigation to determine whether they were accurate or contradicted by evidence. Josh is answering them in detail because of the character assassination that is occurring, unfairly threatening his career.”
Jacobs’ lawyers said that one of the three women made a claim to the NFL, which reviewed it and decided no action was warranted. They said Jacobs “has kept evidence that supports his accounts and the NFL’s decision.”
The NFL declined comment Sunday on the lawyers’ statement. After Hobart-Lawrence police released the records that detailed the accounts from other women, NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy had said Saturday that the league would review these allegations as part of its investigation.
Jacobs’ lawyers said another woman made a claim only after Jacobs had called Las Vegas police to his home to report her for misconduct. Jacobs played for the Las Vegas Raiders before joining the Packers in 2024.
Jacobs also denied any physical altercation with the third woman. Jacobs’ lawyers said she contacted Jacobs to ask to visit, came to Las Vegas and stayed at his home, and that another person was present in the house for part of her stay.
According to the records released Friday, one woman contacted police after Jacobs’ arrest to say she had experienced a similar incident with him around 2023. She later would say the incident actually occurred on Jan. 5, 2022.
The woman said she had communicated with Jacobs for about six months before spending around 11 hours at his home. The woman said that after she told Jacobs she hadn’t come there for sex, he became angry, slapped her and told her not to disrespect him.
She said he took her phone and threw it into a swimming pool when she attempted to leave, and that he grabbed her by the hair, threw her onto a bed, pinned her down, threw her to the floor and said, “I should kill you right now.” She said Jacobs also spit on her.
The woman said she hadn’t previously reported the incident to law enforcement because she remained friends with Jacobs afterward and was concerned her allegations wouldn’t be believed. The woman said she contacted police this time because she believed it showed a pattern of behavior similar to the allegations in the May case.
Another woman told police she had sex with Jacobs in April 2021. The woman said his condom broke, so she told Jacobs to get tested for sexually transmitted diseases because they both had been involved with other people.
The woman said Jacobs later removed her from the residence, grabbed her by the arms and bicep area, pushed her against a wall and threw her belongings out. She told police that she sustained bruises to her arms and swelling in her rib area.
Hobart/Lawrence police said they obtained records from that incident indicating that officers observed “no visible signs of injury, bruising or damage consistent with a physical altercation.”
Another woman said she met Jacobs through social media and that he flew her to a residence in May 2022. She described an altercation in which Jacobs grabbed her by the hair, placed his hands on her head and neck, dragged her, scratched her chest and took her phone after it fell to the floor.
She said she didn’t report the incident to police because she wasn’t a U.S. citizen at the time and Jacobs told her she could be deported.
Jacobs was arrested May 26, three days after Hobart-Lawrence police officers came to his Wisconsin home to investigate a disturbance. According to police, the woman told them Jacobs grabbed her and threw her to the ground as she was trying to exit a garage door, causing her to hit her head. Police said Jacobs also took her phone from her while she was on the ground.
Police said they noticed redness on her face and neck and could feel a bump on the back of her head.
According to a criminal complaint, the woman’s statement was corroborated by surveillance footage from the camera system in the garage where the incident occurred. Both Jacobs and the victim have gone to court in an attempt to permanently seal evidence from the case, including video footage.
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