Monday evening reports began to surface that Kansas City Chiefs Wide Receiver, Justyn Ross had been arrested by Shawnee Police. At first, it was reported as a domestic violence case and criminal damage exceeding $25,000. However, today we learn those assumptions were not accurate.
To this point, Kansas City Chiefs Wide Receiver, Justyn Ross has been a model player on and off the field. However, on Monday, he was arrested by Shawnee Police and released without charges a few hours later.
Initial reports of the arrest indicated there would be two counts of felony charges, Domestic Battery with No Priors, and Criminal Damage exceeding $25,000, that the Johnson County District Attorney’s office was mulling over this morning. According to reports, the girlfriend of Ross called 911 and indicated he had broken her cell phone and trashed her apartment.
However, Tuesday morning it was revealed that Ross was charged with two lesser counts indicating the severity of what was first reported was inaccurate.
Instead, he was charged with criminal damage of less than $1,000 in property, and a domestic battery charge. In both cases, they were classified as misdemeanors. Ross will likely plead not guilty in court later today. It should be noted again that Ross has never had issues with any domestic complaints prior to his arrest on Monday.
It’s not known what the Chiefs will do in this instance but knowing their affection for Ross and the road he’s traveled to get to the NFL, I would suspect, he’ll get whatever help he needs. That doesn’t mean the Chiefs won’t suspend him until they have all the facts.
Again, we really can’t speculate on anything else at this point because we don’t have all the facts. As we’ve seen in the past when these arrests occur to athletes, generally there are two sides to the story. However, if the DA’s office felt more serious charges were warranted, they would not have classified both as misdemeanors.
To this point of the season, the Chiefs have brought Ross along slowly. It takes to get up to speed with the complex offense that is required to get playing time under Head Coach, Andy Reid. In that regard, Reid, General Manager, Brett Veach, Offensive Coordinator, Matt Nagy, and Quarterback, Patrick Mahomes have all been in unison stating Ross will be a big part of the offense.
In their view, the Chiefs believe he needed more time and reps in games to increase the trust factor he has with Mahomes. How this arrest factors into both those opportunities, remains to be seen.
Either way, it was wrong for media outlets to report theories on the charges yesterday that were inaccurate. For all parties involved, I’m glad those assumptions were put to rest this morning, now that we know the exact charges Ross faces.
