Amid Sexual Assault Accusations, Ray McDonald Released by San Francisco 49ers

News broke yesterday that the San Jose Police Department was looking into Ray McDonald for an alleged sexual assault. The SJPD stated in a press release that after a hospitalized female victim notified police, “the San Jose Police Department Sexual Assaults Investigations Unit was notified and responded to conduct follow-up investigation. Based on preliminary investigation, detectives secured a search warrant and served it at the alleged suspect’s residence in San Jose.”

It is important to note that no arrests have been made nor charges filed. But despite this, the San Francisco 49ers has decided to release the troubled defensive linesman: probably due to the fact the organization took a lot of heat for their handling of Ray a few short months ago. The defensive lineman made headlines last month when he was cleared of a domestic battery charge. Despite the August 31 arrest, where the police saw visible injuries to McDonald’s fiancé, the Santa Clara Deputy District Attorney dismissed the case claiming, “Conflicting versions of the event, a lack of verifiable eyewitnesses and a significant lack of cooperation from Jane Doe; we cannot prove a crime occurred. In this particular case, there were particular pieces of information missing.”

However, unlike Greg Hardy and Adrian Peterson, who was placed on the Commissioner’s Permission list, Ray McDonald was allowed to play with the pending charges: a fact that a lot of people were not happy about. Basically, the 49ers were not willing to make the same mistake twice.

And  official announcement by 49ers GM Trent Baalke reflects this notion, as he makes it abundantly clear why Ray was released: “not about just this incident. This is about a pattern.” And he further added that this was a team decision, which included the owners and the entire coaching staff.