Back in October, Bears defensive end Mario Edwards Jr. was said to be sued for an alleged assault at a hotel in Charlotte in 2020.
New details have emerged regarding the civil lawsuit filed against the Bears pass rusher when Edwards Jr. was accused of assaulting a woman in a hotel in Charlotte, following the Bears’ Week 6 game against the Panthers. Joann Blakney accused Edwards of assault, battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress. She also accused the Bears of negligent supervision and defamation.
According to the complaint, Blakney stated that she and Edwards had an on-and-off relationship dating back to 2012, which became verbally and physically abusive three years later. The story goes is that she booked a hotel room in October 2020 at the Hilton Charlotte Uptown, where the Bears players were staying for their contest against the Carolina Panthers, to meet with Edwards, according to the Tribune.
Blakney, who was pregnant at the time, said she had consensual oral sex with Edwards, but then he became enraged and violent after she rejected his request for sexual intercourse. Her suit stated Edwards hit her in the face, twisted her nails backwards and dragged her towards the hotel door, per the Tribune. The report goes on to say the woman hit Edwards Jr. in an attempt to free herself.
In her suit, Blakney has also accused Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officer Jeffrey Burton of negligence.
The police report listed both Edwards and Blakney as victims, stating that officers responded to a report of “a female hitting a male with her hand and scratching his forehead.”
Blakney said that Burton retrieved four unidentified Bears employees to help him respond to the incident. Those employess, she claimed, asked if she wanted or needed money, brought Edwards to her against her wishes, and falsely stated that she was a prostitute, the Tribune noted.
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Edwards, a seven-year league veteran, was issued a criminal summons on a charge of misdemeanor assault on a female. Blakney is also facing a misdemeanor simple assault charge from the incident.
His attorney has accused the plaintiff of filing the lawsuit as a “money play,” according to the Tribune.
