{"id":811966,"date":"2026-03-14T14:03:44","date_gmt":"2026-03-14T14:03:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/811966\/"},"modified":"2026-03-14T14:03:44","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T14:03:44","slug":"prosecutors-bring-3-felony-charges-against-falcons-james-pearce-jr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/811966\/","title":{"rendered":"Prosecutors bring 3 felony charges against Falcons’ James Pearce Jr."},"content":{"rendered":"

Prosecutors brought three felony charges against Atlanta Falcons player James Pearce Jr. stemming from an incident on Feb. 7<\/a> that police referred to as a domestic dispute with WNBA player and ex-girlfriend Rickea Jackson, according to a court document filed Thursday.<\/p>\n

The Florida State Attorney\u2019s office in Miami-Dade County filed charges of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, fleeing and eluding police and resisting an officer with violence. A fourth charge of stalking was brought as a misdemeanor.<\/p>\n

An additional charge of aggravated battery of an officer was dropped.<\/p>\n

Lawyers for Pearce and Jackson did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment Thursday. Pearce\u2019s attorney, Jacob Nunez, in February said his client \u201cmaintains his innocence and urges the public to understand that while allegations have the power to shape a narrative, that it is hardly the full, complete story.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n AP AUDIO: Prosecutors bring 3 felony charges against Falcons\u2019 James Pearce Jr. in domestic dispute\n <\/p>\n

Prosecutors are bringing felony charges against an NFL player a in domestic dispute involving a WNBA player. Correspondent Gethin Coolbaugh reports.<\/p>\n

Falcons general manager Ian Cunningham addressed the case briefly with reporters in Georgia on Friday. \u201cObviously, we\u2019re aware of the most recent articles and things that have come out regarding James Pearce,\u201d Cunningham said. \u201cThose are concerning, right, to say the least, but outside of that, I\u2019ll just keep it just very similar to what we said at the combine. We\u2019re not going to comment on an open legal matter here moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the police account, Jackson told authorities she attempted to drive away from Pearce and was driving toward the Doral police station to seek help when Pearce \u201cintentionally collided into the rear of her vehicle with his SUV\u201d before police arrived.<\/p>\n

Pearce allegedly refused an initial order from police to \u201cget on the floor,\u201d according to details of the arrest in an affidavit. The police account said Pearce then drove away and hit a police officer\u2019s left knee with his vehicle \u201cintentionally in an attempt to evade arrest.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to police, Pearce wrecked his vehicle and then continued in his attempt to elude police by running before being apprehended following a \u201cshort struggle.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jackson, in a petition for protection against Pearce filed in February, expressed fears for her safety that predated the incident for which he was arrested and charged.<\/p>\n

\u201cDue to his obsessive, insecure, violent and aggressive behavior, ending the relationship has been difficult and I am afraid for my life,\u201d Jackson said in the petition filed in the 11th Judicial Circuit in Miami-Dade County. \u201cJames has threatened to kill me, James has threatened to harm me, James has threatened to injure me, James has threatened to place a bag over my head, and James has verbally and physically abused.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jackson in the petition said Pearce snatched her phone, pulled her hair and took her belongings, at which point she decided to end their relationship.<\/p>\n

She described a pattern of harassing behavior leading up to Feb. 7, including Pearce offering her $75,000 to visit him and $200,000 to remain in a relationship with him, according to the petition. Jackson said she was driving when she noticed Pearce following her in his car and she said he \u201cbegan driving his vehicle erratically, at high speeds chasing after me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jackson said in the petition she began driving to the Doral Police Department because she feared Pearce would hurt her. She said Pearce repeatedly struck her vehicle with his before getting to the station. <\/p>\n

Jackson, 24, is two years into her WNBA career. She said she and Pearce began dating when they were at the University of Tennessee together.<\/p>\n

Pearce, 22, was the No. 26 pick<\/a> in the NFL draft last year. He had 10 1\/2 sacks and his 45 quarterback pressures set a Falcons rookie record.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP Sports Writer Maura Carey contributed from Atlanta. <\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP NFL: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/nfl<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Prosecutors brought three felony charges against Atlanta Falcons player James Pearce Jr. stemming from an incident on Feb.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":811967,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2074],"tags":[5559,223,254,2554,1443,224,4432,380,113130,7,4645,565,629,53720,28347,113129,703,5123,6,498,9,58438],"class_list":{"0":"post-811966","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-atlanta-falcons","8":"tag-assault","9":"tag-atlanta","10":"tag-atlanta-falcons","11":"tag-atlantafalcons","12":"tag-california","13":"tag-falcons","14":"tag-fl-state-wire","15":"tag-florida","16":"tag-florida-state-government","17":"tag-football","18":"tag-ga-state-wire","19":"tag-general-news","20":"tag-georgia","21":"tag-ian-cunningham","22":"tag-indictments","23":"tag-jacob-nunez","24":"tag-james-pearce-jr","25":"tag-law-enforcement","26":"tag-nfl","27":"tag-nfl-football","28":"tag-sports","29":"tag-womens-national-basketball-association"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116227906153046927","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=811966"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811966\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/811967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=811966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=811966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=811966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}