QUINCY — A jury on Friday acquitted New England Patriots safety Jabrill Peppers of charges that he assaulted a woman at his Braintree home in October.
Peppers, 29, leaned back in his seat and looked toward the ceiling as the jury foreman began returning verdicts of “not guilty.’’ Peppers was acquitted on charges of strangulation, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, and assault and battery on a family or household member.
As he left Quincy District Court with his parents and his attorney, Peppers told reporters that the months since his arrest were “the first time in my life where football wasn’t the most important thing on my mind, and I had to just sit through everybody pouring dirt on my name.’’
“To me, crimes against children and women are the most egregious thing that you can do, and to be accused of that, it just hurt,’’ he said. “And I think that it makes it difficult for women who actually are abused to get their proper due, and it also sheds another light on how men in my position can be victims or targets.’’
On the stand, Peppers said he told police that he believed “she was trying to do all this to mess up my career.’’ His attorney, Marc Brofsky, said in his closing argument that the woman was attempting a “money grab.’’
The verdict was returned about an hour and 20 minutes after the jury was released from the courtroom for lunch and began deliberations. Brofsky said the jury, which included five women and one man, deliberated for about half an hour.
“I usually say my client was found not guilty, but in this case I will say he was found innocent,’’ he said outside the courthouse. “Given the state of the evidence, given how quickly the jury returned their verdict, they knew it was a joke.’’
The woman, who alleged that Peppers choked her and shoved her down a set of stairs during an argument, left the courtroom with members of her family shortly after the verdict was read.
“I told my side of the story,’’ the woman said. “I know the truth.’’
The Norfolk District Attorney’s office issued a statement that said, “the jury heard the evidence and rendered its verdict. We respect the jury’s decision and thank them for their service to the Commonwealth.’’
In closing arguments, prosecutors said that Peppers became enraged when another man made repeated phone calls to the woman as the two were having sex in the early hours of Oct. 5. He responded by assaulting her and forcing her to leave his townhouse, prosecutors said.
“When she didn’t leave his house like he immediately demanded her to, he reacted with violence,’’ Norfolk Assistant District Attorney Abigail Bird told jurors. “She insulted him while they were arguing, she said a derogatory term towards him that frustrated him and made him angry, like he said. So he reacted with violence.’’
On Thursday, the woman testified that Peppers “grabbed me by the neck and slammed me against the wall.’’
Peppers and the woman both testified that they first met in April 2022 and began having sex in the weeks after. The woman testified that the two had met up about 15 to 20 times, usually having sex at his home — first when he lived in Foxborough and then after he moved to Braintree.
Peppers said he didn’t want an “exclusive relationship’’ with the woman, whom he said was also having sex with one of his teammates, a claim she denied, and that she had been asking him for money, including $2,000 to pay her mortgage.
“I [didn’t] like how she was asking me for things while doing her own thing,’’ he testified.
Peppers testified that he returned home after celebrating his 29th birthday with his friends in Boston. He said the group was set to go to an afterparty at another friend’s home and he wanted to stop by his house to get swim trunks.
He went inside his home with the woman and one of her friends, Peppers testified. After the woman’s friend left, he and the woman had sex, he said. During sex, Peppers said the woman’s phone rang three or four times and the name “Juju’’ with a heart emoji appeared on the screen. At first, they ignored the phone, but Peppers said he eventually asked if she needed to answer it, and she silenced her phone.
They continued having sex, with Peppers wearing a condom, he said. Later, the woman tried to have intercourse without a condom, but he didn’t want to, he said. He said she tried a second time and he had to “push her off.’’
“I said, I don’t trust you. We’re not in a relationship. We don’t really rock with each other like that anymore,’’ Peppers testified.
An argument ensued, and Peppers said the woman began cursing at him and called him a racial slur.
“Everything stemmed from her trying to have unprotected sex with me, and me not wanting to, and she got kind of erratic,’’ he said.
Peppers said he pulled out his phone and began recording video, and she grabbed his phone and wrist. As he pulled his phone away, the woman fell and scraped her knee, he said.
The videos were played in court Friday, and in one a slap could be heard. Peppers testified it was the sound of her slapping him in the chest.
The woman has also filed a civil lawsuit against Peppers that seeks $9.5 million, she confirmed during questioning. She said that the suit is “not about the money’’ and that her goal is to hold Peppers “accountable.’’
Peppers signed a three-year, $30 million contract extension with the Patriots last summer. The Patriots did not immediately return a message seeking comment on the verdict Friday.
After his arrest in October, he was placed on the National Football League Commissioner’s exempt list, meaning he could not practice with the team or attend games.
On Thursday, before the trial began, Peppers admitted to a charge of possessing cocaine on the morning of his arrest. The charge was continued without a finding through an agreement with the prosecution, meaning that if Peppers doesn’t reoffend, the charge will be dismissed.
Nick Stoico can be reached at nick.stoico@globe.com.
