DA Won't Charge Ray McDonald in Alleged Domestic Violence Incident

Ray McDonald will not be charged with felony domestic abuse stemming from an early-morning, Aug. 31 dispute with his fiancee at his San Jose home. The Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office said it had insufficient evidence to charge McDonald, a 49ers' defensive end. The incident occurred during a birthday celebration for McDonald.

At a press conference this morning, Lindsay Walsh, the deputy district attorney assigned to the case, said McDonald's fiancee, called Jane Doe for the purposes of the investigation, suffered minor injuries "consistent with restraint rather than an attack." Further complicating any criminal charge against McDonald were her lack of cooperation beyond an initial interview and a lack of other witnesses, Walsh said.

Walsh also said that the fiancee was asked during her 911 call if McDonald had hit her. "She was very clear that she said he’s trying to throw me out of the house," Walsh said. "She never used the word choking, grabbing punching, anything of that nature," said Walsh.

"Because of conflicting accounts, the lack of a verifiable eyewitness, and the lack of cooperation by Jane Doe, we cannot prove that a crime occurred."

Cindy Hendrickson, supervising deputy district attorney for the Family Violence Unit, said, "The issue … is always the amount of force used. And one issue we had to contend with here is Jane Doe's lack of cooperation after the initial investigation. And part of the regular investigation pursuant to our Santa Clara County domestic violence protocol is recontacting victims 48 hours later and getting photos of the injuries, because sometimes those injuries manifest in a way that we can tell more about how much force was used. That evidence isn’t available here."

The DA's office also revealed McDonald had made a 911 call two minutes before his fiancee. McDonald had also called 911 in May, asking that his fiancee be removed from his house because she had a gun. No charges were filed in that incident.

Here is the full statement from the Santa Clara district attorney's office. You can read the office's full investigation memo here. It includes the DA office's detailed account of what went on that night.

Playing McDonald

The 49ers had to decide whether to bench McDonald following his arrest and pending completion of the DA's investigation. The Niners chose to keep him active, and 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh has repeatedly defended that decision by saying "due process" had to be respected. In light of the spate of alleged criminal activity by NFL players -- from other domestic violence cases like the high-profile Ray Rice elevator incident and the Adrian Petersen child abuse case to Aldon Smith's DUI -- the team came under considerable criticism for keeping McDonald on the field. San Francisco Chronicle columnist Ann Killion, for instance, has lambasted the team's stance.

"I think it says that winning is the most important thing, and they are not really that concerned about their image, or their corporate brand and the damage that might be done to it, or maybe about their female fan base,” Killion told KQED's Mina Kim in September. “I’m not saying Ray McDonald is guilty. Nobody knows. But in a lot of lines of work, if you get arrested for something as serious as felony domestic abuse you’re put on an immediate leave of absence.”

As a result of the incident, the San Jose Police Department barred its officers from working for the 49ers. Various Bay Area media reported last month that Sgt. Sean Pritchard, who moonlighted as a member of the team's security detail, was at McDonald's home the night of the party. "Apparently responding to a phone call from McDonald after the incident," the San Jose Mercury News wrote, "he returned to the home in uniform and on duty -- before other officers arrived in response to a 911 call."

The SJPD is investigating Pritchard's involvement in the case, which the DA's office said did not hamper its own investigation.