A six-person jury has been seated in Fulton County State Court to decide a battery charge against Denver Broncos wide receiver Brandon Marshall.
While the charge is a misdemeanor, Marshall faces a lengthy suspension from NFL commissioner Roger Goodell if found guilty. Marshall was charged after allegedly beating up his former girlfriend on March 4, 2008, at the woman’s downtown Atlanta apartment. Rasheedah Watley claims Marshall slapped her, grabbed her head and threw her down onto a bed, leaving cuts on her lips and a mark above her left eye. Watley said Marshall had become upset after discovering an ex-boyfriend had sent her a text message.
According to the Fulton County Police officer’s report, Watley said Marshall had physically assaulted her on previous occasions.
Based on the charge, Marshall was suspended three games in 2008 for violating the NFL’s personal-conduct policy (he appealed the sentence down to one game). Repeat offenders of the policy, enacted by Goodell in 2007, have been slapped with suspensions of at least eight games.
The Pro Bowl receiver, whose contract expires after the 2009 season, has had several skirmishes with the law both in Atlanta and Colorado, where he resides during the football season. Earlier this year Atlanta Police responded to a heated argument between Marshall and his fiancee, Michi Nogami-Campbell, outside his house. The responding officer arrested the couple after observing them repeatedly kick and punch each other, though the disorderly conduct charges against both were later dismissed.
An article published last summer in the Rocky Mountain News reported that deputies in suburban Denver had been called to Marshall’s home “about 11” times in the two-and-half-years he had lived there (though not always for incidents involving the fourth-year receiver). He was arrested once following a domestic dispute but charges were dismissed after Marshall completed anger management counseling.
The jury is expected to receive the battery case on Friday.
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