Judge dismisses felony sexual battery charges against Jackson Mahomes
A judge dropped three felony charges against Jackson Mahomes, the younger brother of Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, at the request of the prosecution on Wednesday, according to Johnson County court records.
Mahomes had been facing three counts of aggravated sexual battery and a fourth charge of misdemeanor battery over an incident at a Kansas City restaurant last February, in which he was accused of shoving a male waiter and forcibly kissing the female owner of the restaurant. He is still facing the misdemeanor battery charge.
Per KCTV, court documents show the alleged sexual battery victim refused to testify in court while claiming her encounter with Mahomes was consensual and she was not truthful with police. It's unclear how those claims square with a publicly available surveillance footage of Mahomes appearing to grab the 40-year-old woman from behind by the neck and kissing her extensively.
The state reportedly opted to proceed with charges against Mahomes because of the existence of the surveillance footage and that “victims recant or become uncooperative for a host of reasons and this does not mean the original account to law enforcement was inaccurate.”
Previously, the restaurant owner had told the Kansas City Star that Mahomes requested to speak with her after he allegedly shoved her waiter, then grabbed her with enough force to leave a faint bruise:
“He forcibly kissed me out of nowhere,” Vaughn told The Star, “and I’m telling him, pushing him off saying, ‘What are you doing?’ And then he proceeded to do it two more times where the last time I was pushing him off and I can see on the cameras that somebody was outside the office door and I was yelling for them to come help because he’s big and massive.”
The remaining misdemeanor charge is tied to Mahomes' alleged shoving of the waiter. The restaurant at the center of the allegations, Aspens Restaurant and Lounge, has since closed. The owner has since said she regrets that police got involved and claimed her restaurant had seen its outdoor pipes cut following the incident.
Mahomes' attorney, Brandan Davies, released a statement after his client's arrest in May claiming "Jackson did nothing wrong" and said his team's investigation had uncovered exonerating evidence:
“Our investigation has revealed substantial evidence refuting the claims of Jackson’s accuser including the statements of several witnesses. We have reached out to law enforcement to provide the fruit of our investigation so that they may have a complete picture of the matter."
