Prosecutors in Kansas filed to dismiss three felony charges of aggravated sexual battery against Jackson Mahomes on Tuesday.
Mahomes, younger brother of Kansas City Chiefs star quarterback Patrick Mahomes, was accused of grabbing a woman by the neck and kissing her against her will on February 25 at Aspens Restaurant and Lounge in a Kansas City suburb. If a judge grants the motion to dismiss felony charges, Jackson Mahomes would still face one charge of misdemeanor battery.
The accuser in the misdemeanor battery case is not the same as the one in the felony sexual battery case.
Mahomes’ lawyer Brandan Davies released a statement via email to Newsweek.
“Like I said from the beginning, Jackson has done nothing wrong,” Davies wrote. “We had full confidence that the truth of the matter would ultimately be revealed. The defense will reserve further comment until the remaining count is disposed of.”
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Prosecutors declined comment to Newsweek via email on Wednesday.
Authorities said Mahomes pushed a waiter who tried to enter a room he was in with the owner of the restaurant, Aspen Vaughn. Investigators also said Mahomes grabbed Vaughn by the throat and forcibly kissed her three times, which Vaughn later described as “unwelcome and shocking.” Surveillance footage of the incident was provided to KMBC 9 by Vaughn.
As part of the prosecution’s motion to dismiss the felony charges, Assistant District Attorney Megan Ahsens wrote that Vaughn was uncooperative, adding that prosecutors were “prepared to proceed with the case because victims recant or become uncooperative for a host of reasons and that does not mean that the original account to law enforcement was inaccurate,” according to The Kansas City Star.
However, Ahsens wrote, Vaughn “made her lack of cooperation abundantly clear,” and that she repeatedly dodged attempts to serve her with a subpoena. Per the prosecution, the woman said she would say she has not been truthful with police, and she planned to say the encounter with Mahomes was consensual.
In July, Vaughn told Fox 4 in Kansas City that she just wanted things to go back to normal. She closed her restaurant in August, saying attention brought by the case against Mahomes led to months of harassment, including disturbing phone calls and natural gas lines being cut.
“What happened that evening we don’t condone it—it wasn’t OK, but in the same aspect we have our lives to live and to go on, and I feel like a lot of people just made assumptions and came after us,” Vaughn told Fox 4.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.