GREEN BAY, Wis. -- Packers running back Josh Jacobs was charged Thursday with misdemeanor battery and misdemeanor criminal damage to property, according to Wisconsin court records.
The formal charges came more than three months after he was arrested following an alleged domestic violence incident at his home near Green Bay.
"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," Brown County District Attorney David L. 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. As this is an ongoing criminal case, and out of respect for the rights of all parties, our office will not have further comment on the matter at this time."
According to the criminal complaint, each charge -- both Class A misdemeanors -- is subject to a fine of not more than $10,000 or not more than nine months in prison or both if he is convicted.
Per the criminal complaint, a woman identified as Jacobs' girlfriend told officers that she had been looking through Jacobs' phone and saw that he was talking to other girls. She became upset and threw his phone. She told Jacobs he could look through her phone and told him to call a car to bring her to Chicago. When she tried to retrieve her phone, Jacobs did not return it, grabbed her arm and began a physical struggle, which lasted several minutes.
Later, the complaint said the woman was trying to exit Jacobs' garage when he "grabbed her and threw her to the ground and she struck her head, suffering an injury."
The report says a police officer "observed redness to [her] face and neck and was able to feel that she had a bump on the back of her head. She described that she was in pain as a result of the injuries." She also said Jacobs did not return one of her phones and damaged the other.
The report said there is surveillance footage from the camera system within the garage but not inside the house.
A statement from Jacobs' lawyers David Z. Chesnoff, Richard A. Schonfeld, and Clarence F. Duchac III said: "The Brown County District Attorney has reviewed evidence and elected to file misdemeanor charges against Josh that do not include domestic violence. The allegations will be addressed in court, and not in the media. Mr. Jacobs respects the District Attorney's office and the process it followed."
Jacobs is subject to a suspension by the NFL, which is conducting its own investigation. It's up the NFL to decide whether to suspend Jacobs to start this season or wait until the legal process is completed.
"We have been closely monitoring all developments in the matter which remains under review," NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said Thursday.
Jacobs is scheduled for an initial court appearance on Nov. 17.
Jacobs was originally arrested on May 26 and booked by the Hobart-Lawrence (Wisconsin) Police Department on counts of battery (domestic abuse, criminal damage to property), domestic abuse, disorderly conduct (domestic abuse, strangulation and suffocation), and intimidation of a victim. The strangulation and suffocation charge was a felony, and the other four charges were misdemeanors.
The charges stemmed from a May 23 incident in which police were called to a residence.
Jacobs spent a night in jail and was released a day later, pending further investigation by the Brown County District Attorney's office. At the time, the DA's office said the investigation "remains open and ongoing."
Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst will consider keeping an extra running back if he thinks Jacobs could miss the start of the season, which begins on Sept. 13 at the Minnesota Vikings. In addition to Jacobs, the Packers planned to keep MarShawn Lloyd and Chris Brooks as backup running backs. Pierre Strong Jr. likely would be the fourth running back.
"We'll deal with that if that transpires but we could," Gutekunst said Wednesday. "You're always usually going to keep three or four running backs, and I think we have enough to do that. But again it comes down to choices and trying to figure that out. The one thing, particularly at that position, is elevating a guy from the practice squad -- I don't want to say it's easy to do but it's something we've done in the past and not something we'd shy away from."