Battery Case Against Browns Rookie DL Caleb Brantley Dismissed

Update:

The Browns released the following statement regarding the news that the charges against rookie DL Caleb Brantley have been dismissed.

Statements from Sashi Brown and @CalebBrantleyFB: pic.twitter.com/FXDpfWkBPI

— Cleveland Browns (@Browns) May 17, 2017

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The battery case against Browns sixth-round DL Caleb Brantley has been dismissed due to “insufficient evidence to sustain a conviction,” according to court records obtained by Matt Baker.

The Browns elected to use the No. 185 overall pick on Brantley a few weeks ago, despite the pending legal case in which he has been charged on suspicion of misdemeanor battery for allegedly knocking a woman unconscious at a bar.

Browns executive VP Sashi Brown told reporters after they made the pick that they could still decide not to keep Brantley and added that his misdemeanor charge against Brantley was “concerning”

“This may not be something we can get comfortable with,” Brown said.

Cleveland ultimately felt that taking Brantley was worth the risk for them, even though a number of teams reportedly believed he may go undrafted.

The police report mentioned that Brantley and the woman were engaged in a verbal altercation over some crude comments made by Brantley. The women pushed Brantley and he allegedly responded by striking her and ultimately knocking her unconscious. The women suffered dental injuries that included a displaced tooth, which will require a root canal.

Browns owner Dee Haslam explained that they trust their front office when it comes to making personnel decisions and doing the necessary due diligence with situations like this.

“We really trust our football personnel group to make these decisions and they vet every situation very carefully,” Haslam said, via the Cleveland Plain Dealer. “They do their research. We trusted that, and we have to trust in that.”

“We really trust our football organization,” she added. “I’m sure you could feel that. Sashi and our personnel group have done an amazing job. So we just trust them and their decisions. So we’re excited to have Caleb on the team. We feel like he’s doing the right things to get better. . . .

“These are young men, and you do understand that we’re doing our best to build great men. So we hope surrounding him and doing the right things, he can become that great man. He has work to do. But we are confident that as an organization we’ll continue to work on that.”

Brantley was believed to be in the mix to be a second-round pick in this year’s NFL draft, but the incident led to him falling to the Browns in the sixth-round.

During his three-year college career at Florida, Brantley recorded 80 tackles, 20.5 tackles for a loss, 5.5 sacks, three forced fumbles and a recovery over the course of 31 games.