Running back Dalvin Cook has been suspended indefinitely by Florida State after being charged with misdemeanor battery for allegedly striking a 21-year-old woman outside of a Tallahassee bar on June 23.
The university issued a brief statement announcing the suspension.
State Attorney Willie Meggs told ESPN he sought a warrant for Cook's arrest after meeting with the woman, who is not a Florida State student, and a female witness.
“I found the women to be very credible,” Meggs told ESPN.
The incident occurred one night before former FSU quarterback De’Andre Johnson was caught on security cameras punching a woman at a bar. Johnson, a freshman, was charged with misdemeanor battery, and Florida State dismissed the quarterback after the video surfaced.
The woman told ESPN that Cook, 19, punched her several times in the face after an argument. According to ESPN’s report, the woman said she refused to give her phone number to a man who approached her, who was not Cook. When the argument became heated, Cook began to strike her.
The woman, who spoke to ESPN on the condition she remain anonymous, said the men “kept telling me to Google them. They told me they were football players and they could buy me in two years.”
According to ESPN’s story:
“The woman who said Cook punched her [said] that her bottom lip was split and her nose was sore the next day. The woman said she identified Cook as the man who struck her in a photo lineup with two [Tallahassee Police Department] investigators on July 1. She told police she wanted to pursue criminal charges against him.”
Cook, a rising sophomore, was the Seminoles leading rusher last season with 1,008 yards. He is on several preseason All-ACC teams and even has been mentioned as an outside candidate for the Heisman Trophy. He was a former Florida “Mr. Football” at Miami Central High School.
Cook was involved in two other legal issues while at Florida State, both last summer. The first occurred in June, “a BB-gun battle” in which cars and residences at an apartment complex in Tallahassee were damaged. According to ESPN, Cook was charged with criminal mischief and given pre-trial intervention in December, which he completed on June 16.
In the second, Cook was named as an “associate” in an aggravated assault case in which police were investigating whether two men had brandished a firearm at a neighbor.
