SAN JOSE, Calif. — Former San Francisco 49er Dana Stubblefield responded Tuesday to allegations that he raped a “developmentally delayed” woman by saying he is “completely innocent” of the charges.
Stubblefield briefly addressed the media Tuesday at the Jubilee Christian Center in North San Jose, Calif., where he is a member, to voice his innocence of a rape allegation.
“I am here to state without any reservation that I am completely innocent of all these allegations,” Stubblefield said. “I have worked my whole career to be a part of the Bay Area community. And I have worked in several communities and charities with the church. This is an issue that is very close to me. One of my primary charities is Special Olympics something that is true and dear to my heart.
“This is why these allegations hurt me so badly.”
Flanked by his attorneys, the former NFL player offered the brief statement and declined to answer any questions.
Stubblefield, 45, on Monday was charged by the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office with raping a woman who went to his Morgan Hill home on April 9, 2015 to interview for a job as a nanny. He faces a “substantial prison sentence” if convicted, according to prosecutors.
Stubblefield’s attorney, Ken Rosenfeld, claims the woman agreed to consensual sex and later asked Stubblefield for a job and money.
Stubblefield was released from custody around 7 p.m. Monday after posting $250,000 bail, according to ABC7 News. His arraignment is scheduled in four weeks.
During Tuesday’s press conference, Stubblefield’s attorneys challenged the portrayal that the former NFL player exploited a vulnerable “developmentally delayed” person and instead said the woman is competent and the sex was consensual. His attorneys added that Stubblefield only became aware of the rape allegation six to eight weeks ago.
Attorneys said Stubblefield passed a lie-detector test and offered to have the NFL player submit to a similar test given by law enforcement.
Stubblefield’s press conference Tuesday marks the second time in 16 months a former 49er accused of rape publicly attacked the credibility of the reported victim.
In March of 2015, former San Francisco 49er lineman Ray McDonald filed a defamation lawsuit against a woman who accused him of raping her in late 2014. At the time, prosecutors were pondering whether to file sexual assault charges against him and he had been let go by the San Francisco 49ers for demonstrating a “pattern of poor decision-making.”
He was signed by the Chicago Bears, but in May, that team also let him go when he was arrested on domestic violence charges after a clash with his ex-finance in Santa Clara, Calif., while she was holding their infant child.
The woman who claims McDonald raped her filed a cross-complaint against him, claiming that a home-surveillance video showed that both McDonald and 49ers linebacker Ahmad Brooks sexually molested her after she slipped on a wet swimming-pool deck at his Silver Creek house in December 2014 and suffered a traumatic brain injury.
A Santa Clara County Superior Court judge dismissed McDonald’s defamation lawsuit in June of 2014. And in August, Santa Clara County prosecutors filed a misdemeanor sexual battery charge against Brooks over the incident and announced that a grand jury had indicted McDonald on a felony rape charge involving the same woman.
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