49ers OLB Ahmad Brooks allegedly assaulted teammate Lamar Divens

Ahmad Brooks allegedly assaulted 49ers teammate Lamar Divens on June 8th, according to court documents and a police report obtained by the San Jose Mercury News. The documents show a felony charge of assault with a deadly weapon (other than a firearm), which includes a signed arrest warrant for Brooks, but it's still unclear if that warrant will be served.

According to the charging documents, which are viewable at the Mercury News, Brooks struck Divens in the head three times with a beer bottle after Divens pretended to throw Brooks' keys into the grass.

Brooks, Divens, and two 49er teammates had spent the evening at several houses and in downtown San Jose, and when they got back to Divens' house, Brooks asked for his keys to drive home (Divens had been driving up to that point, per the report). The documents indicate that Divens did not want Brooks to drive drunk, and that after Brooks had struck Divens with a beer bottle twice, he then asked "Do I need to get my (expletive) gun?" and hit him a third time (Brooks also punched him, according to one witness statement). Divens initially wanted to press charges, but has since declined to move forward with the case pending a resolution with Brooks. Divens indicated it would be bad for both of their careers, they're still teammates, and he just wanted to 'drop it'. Nonetheless, prosecutors may do so without his support.

As David Fucillo of Niners Nation explains, "The case involves Brooks, Divens, a woman who appears to be Divens' wife, and two 49ers players. All the names except for Brooks' are redacted, but ... you can make out enough of the names to figure out who was involved. Based on what we see, we can only conclude that Lawrence Okoye and Mike Purcell were on hand at the events, and provided statements (and they forgot to redact Purcell's name once). They have a W next to their names in the report, with W standing for witness. V is for victim and O is for officer. The S next to Brooks name stands for suspect."

Per the Mercury News' Tracy Kaplan:

Buoyed by the taped eyewitness statement -- and by Brooks' prior record -- prosecutors who routinely handle battery and assault cases submitted an application Thursday to Judge Sharon Chatman seeking an arrest warrant on a felony assault with great bodily injury charge. It carries a maximum sentence of four years behind bars.

A day later, after the judge signed the warrant, higher ranking officials in the DA's office took the rare step of intervening and notified the court at 4:30 p.m. Friday to hold it, a court spokesman said. Sources said some members of Rosen's administration view the case as a wobbler -- meaning it could be pursued as a misdemeanor instead of a felony -- and others want to drop it entirely.

Kaplan adds:

The hesitation is unusual. The Santa Clara County DA's office is widely known in the Bay Area for being the toughest of all nine area offices on crime.

Obviously, Brooks could face punishment from the NFL if charged or convicted of a felony, and may still receive a suspension even if it's reduced to a misdemeanor or dropped altogether. Brooks had signed a six-year, $44.5M contract extension last year.

I suppose I should issue the reminder that trolling at other blogs (namely Niners Nation) is against our site rules and you can be banned here for doing that over there.