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According to ESPN.com's Tim MacMahon, the DeSoto, Texas, police department will file the Class A misdemeanor family violence charge against Dez Bryant with the Dallas County district attorney's office Friday, DeSoto captain Ron Smith said.
Bryant turned himself in Monday after a warrant was issued for his arrest on allegations that he assaulted his mother, Angela Bryant, during an argument at her home.
According to the incident report, Angela Bryant accused her son of grabbing her by the shirt and hair, hitting her in the face with his cap, striking her repeatedly in the hands and wrists and pushing her in the chest.
Smith, DeSoto's public information officer, said the police department has concluded its investigation and has opted to move forward with the charges.
"We're done with our work," Smith said. "We'll file with the district attorney's office and they'll take it from there."
This is the second time in six months that Bryant has had a run-in with the law.
Back in January, he was involved in an altercation outside a Miami nightclub and was detained by police, but not arrested. In case you haven't been following along, Bryant has been named in multiple lawsuits regarding unpaid debts. He was also kicked out of local mall and temporarily banned last summer for inappropriate attire.
With regard to the latest incident, Bryant faces up to one year in jail and a fine of up to $4,000. He is also subject to a fine or suspension under the NFL's personal conduct policy.
An NFL spokesman said the league will review the incident as appropriate.
Profootballtalk.com's Michael David Smith suggested earlier this week that Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, who has been one of Bryant’s strongest supporters, will surely be extremely disappointed by this development. ESPN's Andrew Brandt chimed in on Twitter with: "Sense that Dez Bryant's going to soon spend some quality time with the Commissioner. ..."
I agree on both counts. ... The question is how much the issue will impact his Fantasy status?
I'm going to take a wait-and-see approach for now and recommend you do the same. This is Bryant's first arrest. Any potential discipline by the Cowboys or the NFL will be complicated. For now, the legal process is just getting started and it will take time to work its way to resolution.
Until then, I expect the Cowboys to be patient. What choice do they have?
As MacMahon recently outlined it, Bryant has been productive. His numbers last season (63 catches for 928 yards and nine touchdowns) were nearly identical to the stats put up by Packers receiver Greg Jennings. It was, by any reasonable measure, a pretty good year.
MacMahon added: "There aren’t any legitimate football-related excuses for Bryant to fail to have a monster season. This will be his third season in the same system. He plays in offense that features a top-10 quarterback and has enough established weapons that opposing defenses can’t just scheme to stop him. And he spent the offseason training under a six-time Super Bowl champion strength coach."
So much will depend on how Bryant, characterized by MacMahon as an "emotionally fragile, immature 23-year-old," handles the intense scrutiny that is coming.
Assuming the Cowboys continue to support him as they have, I don't think it will be a huge distraction. At this point, I've backed off Bryant only slightly in my current rankings. In my opinion, if you considered him a top-10 talent before this incident (and I did), there's no reason to drop him out of that tier. ... Yet.
Stay tuned. I'll be watching for more.