National Sports

Packers’ Jacobs formally charged in dust-up

Green Bay Packers running back Josh Jacobs is facing misdemeanor charges of battery and criminal damage to property stemming from what police described as a physical confrontation with his girlfriend.

Jacobs was arrested May 26 after police were called to his home to investigate a disturbance and was released from jail the next day. The charges were announced Thursday by Brown County District Attorney David Lasee.

“Our office sought to ensure a fair and complete review of available evidence, some of which only recently became available to our office due to significant, ongoing forensic efforts by law enforcement,” Lasee said in a statement. “A criminal complaint is nothing more than a written, formal accusation against a defendant alleging the commission of criminal offenses and does not raise any inference of guilt. Mr. Jacobs is presumed innocent of these charges.”

Jacobs’ lawyers issued a statement acknowledging the charges, noting they “do not include domestic violence.”

Jacobs was back on the field with the Packers for organized team activities less than a week after the arrest and has been with the team for training camp, though he’s been limited by a groin injury.

Jacobs was initially arrested on five criminal charges, including a felony count of strangulation and suffocation as well as battery, criminal damage to property, disorderly conduct and intimidation of a victim. The only charges filed Thursday involved the misdemeanor counts of battery and disorderly conduct.

Started with phone

According to the criminal complaint, the Hobart-Lawrence Police Department responded to a report of a disturbance involving a man and a woman on the morning of May 23. Police said Jacobs’ girlfriend told them she had a lump on her head as a result of Jacobs’ actions.

Police said the woman said she had been looking through Jacobs’ phone and saw he was talking to other women, and that she threw the phone in anger without breaking it. Police said the two then left in separate vehicles, with the woman following Jacobs to try to get her phone back.

After eventually returning home, the woman tried to exit a garage door to get outside when Jacobs grabbed her and threw her to the ground, causing her to hit her head. Police said Jacobs also took the phone from her while she was on the ground.