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Minnesota Vikings cornerback Jeff Gladney’s standing with the team this season just turned for the worse.
A Dallas grand jury indicted Gladney, 24, on a third-degree family violence charge on Tuesday for an alleged assault in April. He was accused of violently assaulting his then-girlfriend and has not participated in any team activities while the Vikings wait for the legal process to take its course.
Vikings President and co-owner Mark Wilf spoke publicly about the development in Gladney’s case.
“Obviously, allegations like these are very disturbing and something that’s concerning to us as ownership and to our organization,” Wilf said, per the Pioneer Press. “Right now… we’re talking to the league and really are working through to understand this better. And as we get more information in the coming hours, we’ll let you know where we go on this. But obviously, the allegations are very disturbing.”
Gladney’s court date has yet to be announced, but a month away from the start of the NFL season, his participation looks unlikely this season.
He faces anywhere from two to 10 years in prison if convicted and it appears the Vikings are looking into making a decision on his future soon.
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Gladney’s Girlfriend Seeking $1 Million in Damages After Alleged 2-Hour Assault in Car
Gladney’s legal troubles started when he turned himself into Dallas County Jail on April 5 for an incident on April 2.
CBS 11 News reported accusations based on court records and an anonymous source, detailing what authorities had gathered from the incident.
The arrest affidavit stated that Gladney had gotten in a dispute with his 22-year-old girlfriend of six months after an argument over messages on a cell phone while driving in southeast Dallas.
Sources told CBS 11 that Gladney became upset over the woman’s text messages and demanded to see her phone. At one point, she threw her phone out of the window on Elam Road but that Gladney stopped to get it, sources said.
A civil lawsuit has also been opened against Gladney, which detailed a violent encounter that took place for over two hours in the car, per the Pioneer Press.
Here are the disturbing details of the alleged assault, per CBS 11:
The affidavit claimed he tried “shoving [her] face toward her phone to try to use the phone’s Face ID to unlock,” and later “… pulling [her] by her hair trying to hold her still in order to get the Face ID to work.”
The accuser then said Gladney began to strike her “… with closed fists causing pain in the side of her ribs, in the stomach and the back, and hitting her open hand across the head.”
Then she told detectives the two returned to an apartment complex in Dallas, where she said Gladney “… began strangling [her] by the neck, which impeded her breathing for approximately five seconds,” and later “… grabbed [her] by her hair while the vehicle was still moving and dragged [her] across the ground.”
The lawsuit, claiming at least $1 million in damages from Gladney, states that Gladney tried to persuade the plaintiff not to press charges. He continued to follow, harass, intimidate and falsely accuse her of lying about the assault, per the Pioneer Press. The suit also stated that Gladney showed up at the plaintiff’s residence uninvited and allegedly “forced plaintiff against her will, to delete threads of text messages and screenshots of text messages” the week of his grand jury hearing.
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Vikings Have Prepared to Play Without Gladney
An influx of five veteran cornerbacks defined the Vikings offseason and helped bolster competition in training camp.
Patrick Peterson and Mackensie Alexander figure to be starters, while Bashuad Breeland will compete with second-year corner Cameron Dantzler for a starting spot on the outside.
Minnesota also signed former Tennessee Titans cornerback Tye Smith and ex-Green Bay Packers cornerback Parry Nickerson. Meanwhile, Kris Boyd, Harrison Hand and Dylan Mabin are buried beneath the bevy of veteran talent.
However the cornerbacks room shakes up approaching the final 53-man roster cuts, the Vikings figure to have a drastically improved cornerbacks unit with or without Gladney.
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