Antonio Brown arrest warrant update: Woman who accused ex-Buccaneers WR of domestic violence asks Tampa Police to drop charges
Antonio Brown recently had charges brought against him stemming from a domestic violence incident. However, new documents report that the woman who initially charged the former wide receiver now wants the charges dropped.
According to WFLA, the statement from the unnamed woman reads in part:
“I am in sound mind, competent to handle my ‘affairs'. The arrest warrant is frivolous, demeaning, prejudicial, unconstitutional, belligerent and combative.”
However, a defense attorney was unimpressed. Tony Duran said:
“This seems like a sovereign citizen-type document. It looks like it’s supposed to be an affidavit, but I can’t tell, it doesn’t appear to be prepared by a lawyer, at least not somebody who practices in Florida. So, I don’t know where they got this but if I had to guess they got this off of the internet.”
He added that this type of document doesn't actually exclude Brown from being brought up on charges:
“The state attorney’s office does not have to honor their wishes. They could proceed with the case without the alleged victim. But typically, they don’t want to do that because, from a practical standpoint, it becomes difficult to prove your case if you have an uncooperative witness or alleged victim."
For now, there is no indication of what will happen. They could respect the wishes of the victim, but there's no indication of whether or not they will.
Why would the accuser not want to charge Antonio Brown for his crimes?
Mindy Murphy, the President and CEO of the Spring of Tampa Bay, says there can be a lot of reasons for the accuser to want to drop charges against their abuser:
It does happen frequently unfortunately and it happens for a variety of reasons. Fear is the number one reason — probably love is the second, but they are also saying things to the victim. The abuser is saying things to the victim, ‘you can’t do this, you’re putting the father of your kids in jail and this will be your fault.'”
This is not an uncommon scenario, but it might be uncommon for a former wide receiver like Antonio Brown to find himself in this situation. A person of his stature could convince an accuser to drop charges.