ATLANTA (AP) — The attorney for Atlanta Falcons rookie James Pearce Jr. says Pearce “maintains his innocence” as he faces five felony charges following his arrest near Miami on Saturday night.
Pearce's charges include fleeing police after what Doral police said was a domestic dispute with WNBA player Rickea Jackson. Pearce was arrested after crashing his car. His charges include two counts of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and aggravated stalking.
According to details of the arrest in the complaint/arrest affidavit obtained by The Associated Press from the Miami-Dade County state attorney's office on Monday, Pearce allegedly refused an initial order from police to “get on the floor” when they responded to the report of the domestic dispute. The police account says Pearce then drove away and hit a police officer's left knee with his Lamborghini “intentionally in an attempt to evade arrest.”
According to the police account of the arrest, Pearce wrecked his vehicle and then continued in his attempt to elude police by running before being apprehended following a “short struggle.”
The police account said Jackson told police she ended the relationship with Pearce after three years and blocked his phone number before Pearce continued to contact her by using a different number.
According to the police account, Jackson told police she attempted to drive away from Pearce and was driving toward the Doral police station to seek help when Pearce “intentionally collided into the rear of her vehicle with his SUV” before police arrived.
Pearce posted bond of $20,500 Sunday at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center.
“We look forward to working with the State Attorney’s office in fully investigating this case and uncovering the truth," Pearce's attorney, Jacob Nunez, said in a statement released to The Associated Press on Monday.
"Mr. Pearce maintains his innocence and urges the public to understand that while allegations have the power to shape a narrative, that it is hardly the full, complete story. We look forward to vigorously defending our client and remain confident that he will continue contributing positively to both his team and the community he serves so well.”
Nunez declined further comment.
Pearce was given a pre-trial stay-away order from Jackson. Pearce and Jackson's relationship began when both played at Tennessee. Jackson sat beside Pearce at the 2025 NFL draft.
The Falcons said in a statement Saturday they are aware of the arrest. “We are in the process of gathering more information and will not have any further comment on an open legal matter at this time,” the team said.
The charges could threaten Pearce's future with the team.
The Falcons traded their 2026 first-round draft pick to the Los Angeles Rams for the No. 26 overall pick in last year's draft used to select Pearce. He then set a Falcons rookie record with a team-leading 10 1/2 sacks. The Falcons set a team record with 57 sacks, one year after finishing next to last in the league with only 31.
Despite the improved pass rush, the Falcons finished 8-9 for their eighth consecutive losing season. Second-year coach Raheem Morris and general manager Terry Fontenot were fired. New president of football Matt Ryan has helped reshape the team's leadership, including the hirings of coach Kevin Stefanski and general manager Ian Cunningham.
Ryan, Cunningham and Stefanski already faced difficult offseason decisions, including the possible release of veteran quarterback Kirk Cousins despite starter Michael Penix Jr.’s uncertain status for the start of the season as he recovers from a knee injury. Pearce's arrest and uncertain legal ramifications add significant difficulty to the challenge of building the team's first winning season and playoff appearance since 2017.
AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl
FILE - Los Angeles Sparks forward Rickea Jackson (2) dribbles during the first half of a WNBA basketball game on Aug. 29, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Kyusung Gong, File)
FILE - Atlanta Falcons linebacker James Pearce Jr. (27) is interviewed after an NFL football game against the New Orleans Saints, on Jan. 4, 2026, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Danny Karnik, File)
CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy (AP) — Lindsey Vonn’s father said Monday that the American superstar will no longer race if he has any influence over her decision and that she will not return to the Winter Olympics after breaking her leg in the downhill over the weekend.
“She’s 41 years old and this is the end of her career,” Alan Kildow said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. “There will be no more ski races for Lindsey Vonn, as long as I have anything to say about it.”
Kildow and the rest of Vonn’s family — a brother and two sisters, too — have been with Vonn while she is being treated at a hospital in Treviso following her fall and helicopter evacuation from the course in Cortina on Sunday.
The hospital late Sunday released a statement saying Vonn had undergone surgery on her left leg and the U.S. Ski Team said she was in stable condition. There have not been other updates since.
Kildow declined to comment on details of Vonn’s injuries, but he did address how she was doing emotionally.
“She’s a very strong individual,” Kildow said. “She knows physical pain and she understands the circumstances that she finds herself in. And she’s able to handle it. Better than I expected. She’s a very, very strong person. And so I think she’s handling it real well.”
Kildow — a former ski racer himself who taught his daughter to race — said he slept in his daughter’s hospital room overnight.
“She has somebody with her — or multiple people with her — at all times,” Kildow said. “We’ll have people here as long as she’s here.”
Kildow and the rest of Vonn’s family watched the crash from the finish area with all of the other spectators.
“First, the shock and the horror of the whole thing, seeing a crash like that,” Kildow said of what he felt watching the scene unfold. “It can be dramatic and traumatic. You’re just horrified at what those kinds of impacts have.
“You can go into a shock an emotional psychological shock,” he added. “Because it’s difficult to just accept what’s happened. But she’s well cared for. … And the USOC and the U.S. Ski team have a very, very top-notch doctor with her and she is being very well cared for here in Italy.”
Vonn raced the downhill despite tearing the ACL in her left knee nine days earlier in another crash.
“What happened to her had nothing to do with the ACL issue on her left leg. Nothing,” Kildow said. “She had demonstrated that she was able to function at a very high level with the two downhill training runs. … And she had been cleared by high level physicians to ski.”
Kildow said the crash was less a result of Vonn’s knee injury than the way she pushed the limits of her racing line to the point where she clipped a gate early in her run and got knocked out of control.
“There are times sometimes in any race, but especially in downhill, where you have to take a little speed off,” he said. “You can give yourself a little bit more leeway on the line so you don’t put yourself in a questionable position.”
Vonn, who holds the record of 12 World Cup victories in Cortina, returned to the circuit last season after nearly six years of retirement and after a partial titanium replacement surgery in her right knee. She won two downhills and finished on the podium in seven of the eight World Cup races that she finished this season — and came fourth in the other one.
“She won 84 World Cup races. And not many people do that,” Kildow said, referring to Vonn’s victory total, which place her second on the all-time women’s list behind teammate Mikaela Shiffrin’s record 108 wins.
“And there’s a hell of a lot of the difference between a speed race, a downhill especially, and a slalom,” Kildow added.
Vonn will not return to the Olympics to cheer on teammates or for anything else, Kildow said.
“No, she’s not that in kind of situation,” he said. “She will be going home at an appropriate point in time.”
AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
United States' Lindsey Vonn's father Alan Kildow is interviewed ahead of an alpine ski women's downhill race, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Dampf)
United States' Lindsey Vonn crashes during an alpine ski women's downhill race, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
FILE - United States' Lindsey Vonn poses with her career medals with her father Alan Kildow, in the finish area after the women's downhill race, at the alpine ski World Championships in Are, Sweden, Sunday, Feb. 10, 2019. (AP Photo/Marco Trovati, File)
United States' Lindsey Vonn is airlifted away after a crash during an alpine ski women's downhill race, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Police officers stand at the doors of a buildin in Ca' Foncello Hospital in Treviso, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026, where U.S. skier Lindsey Vonn is hospitalized with a broken leg after crashing during the women's downhill competition at the Milan-Cortina Olympics. (Paola Garbuio/LaPresse via AP)
FILE - United States' Lindsey Vonn, right, poses for photographs with her father Alan Kildow at the end of an alpine ski, women's World Cup downhill race, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Friday, Jan. 16, 2015. (AP Photo/Andrew Dampf, File)
