Video lawyer says he exonerated Jabrill Peppers on Patriots safety charges and allowed him to go to trial

On Friday, a judge granted a request by a lawyer representing Jabrill Peppers to admit videos recorded the evening the woman accused Peppers of assault into evidence in the Patriots’ safety trial later this month.

During a roughly hour-long hearing in Quincy District Court on Friday, Judge Mark Coven issued the ruling in response to a series of requests by prosecutors and Peppers’ attorney, Marc Alan Brofsky, to admit and suppress certain evidence from the Jan. 22 trial. videos seem to be crucial to Peppers’ defense because Brofsky spoke during earlier court hearings prove his client’s innocence.

Peppers made films after The woman accused him of assault on the morning of October 5. Jurors will be able to watch the videos in their entirety after Coven rejected prosecutors’ request to blur parts because the woman is seen naked.

“If there’s an allegation that she was brutally beaten, thrown against a wall, the jury may want to see if there are any other bruises on her body,” Coven said.

Coven also denied prosecutors’ request to introduce “prior misconduct” against Peppers in October 2023, when a woman accused him of grabbing her and putting his hand on her nose and mouth while they were at his home.

Assistant District Attorney Abigail Bird said the incident showed a pattern of jealousy in Peppers’ relationship with a woman he accused of sleeping with a teammate. However, Brofsky argued that this did not prove a pattern of harassment and was not relevant to the current case.

Coven ultimately ruled that introducing the incident had prejudicial value because the evidence would outweigh any probative value it may have.

Prosecutors sought to prevent Brofsky from introducing into evidence a civil complaint filed by the woman against Peppers and from producing an email sent between a lawyer representing her and a lawyer representing Peppers in the case. According to Brofsky, email shows a woman demanding $10.5 million from Peppers through her lawyer.

“It’s unfortunate for the Commonwealth, it’s damaging to its cause,” he said.

Brofsky suggested that emails questioning a woman’s credibility should be admissible, but Coven said that “out-of-court statements from one lawyer to another may or may not know whether it’s not fair game.” As a result, the exchange will not be presented to the jury as evidence in the case.

Bird also took steps to keep television cameras from showing the woman while she was testifying in the case, but Coven said that by taking the stand, she was subject to the same scrutiny as Peppers.

Coven later granted prosecutors’ request to admit statements made by Peppers in a phone call after his arrest while he was on the record for opposing Brofsky.

While he was being booked, Peppers called accusers described as his coach and told them, “I’ve (expletive) had enough.” Brofsky tried to suppress the testimony on the grounds that it was vague and could have referred to the cocaine found in Peppers’ wallet or his decision to engage with the woman, but prosecutors said the full recording showed he was talking specifically about that for the prosecution for assault.

Bird said that during the phone call, Peppers was warned twice that he was being recorded.

“He continues to only talk about domestic violence allegations,” she added. During a telephone conversation, Peppers admitted that the woman had accused him of assault. Both sides agreed that the summons did not constitute an admission of guilt.

There is pepper accused of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, strangulation or suffocation, possession of a class B drug (cocaine) and assault and battery on a family or household member.

Brofsky said Friday that the drug possession charge would be resolved before trial. It was unclear whether Peppers would plead guilty or if another agreement would be reached.

On Oct. 5 around 4:15 a.m., a woman called police from Peppers’ apartment, saying he hit her, choked her, took off her clothes and threw them outside. She said she was strangled six times but did not lose consciousness.

When police arrived, the woman said: “(Peppers) put his hand around my neck and smashed my head against the wall. Then he pushed me down the stairs and that’s how I got injured,” according to the police report filed in court.

However, Peppers told officers the dispute stemmed from an argument about sex, that the woman was “behaving erratically” and refused to leave when asked to do so.

Peppers told police the woman “fell alone on the stairs because she was under the influence of alcohol.” He claimed that the woman made up the story about him throwing her down the stairs to ruin his career.

He has been free on $2,500 bail since his arrest.