49ers DE Ray McDonald "will not face domestic violence charges in connection with a dispute at his San Jose home with his pregnant fiancée because prosecutors cannot prove a crime occurred," according to Aleaziz & Sernoffsky of the S.F. CHRONICLE. The Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office yesterday said that McDonald’s fiancée "refused to cooperate with investigators, and would not allow them take pictures of her injuries for evidence, which made proving whether McDonald used unreasonable force against her difficult." Officials added that everyone interviewed by police "denied seeing the altercation," except for one of McDonald’s teammates. But prosecutors said the statement from that player, whom they did not identify, "lacks credibility." McDonald "was not suspended" by the team after his August arrest and "has played all season." The 49ers and NFL have said that they "would allow the criminal investigation to play out" (S.F. CHRONICLE, 11/11).
WHAT DID WE LEARN TODAY? In San Jose, Mark Purdy writes what 49ers execs should have learned from the McDonald case is "to handle players' arrests with more transparency." The 49ers "hid behind the 'due process' smokescreen." They "weren't telling any lies," they "just weren't being completely forthright." The team "could have sat down with McDonald for one game to show they took the arrest seriously while giving him time to contemplate his situation and clear his head." 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh yesterday said, "I think we continue to look for ways to send the message of good conduct. And you strive for 100 percent good conduct. And we want to have that. We haven't had that. We want to get there." (SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS, 11/11). Also in San Jose, Tim Kawakami writes the 49ers' part "was not about 'due process.'" It "wasn't about the truth, it was about what could be proved, and the 49ers were acting as defense counsel, lead investigators and actual defendant here." Kawakami: "The reason they could do it this way? They had an employee with a badge on the scene" (SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS, 11/11).
