Judge Dismisses Domestic Violence Charge Against Reuben Foster

A judge has dismissed a domestic violence charge against 49ers linebacker Reuben Foster, according to Matt Barrows of the Sacramento Bee (Twitter links). Judge Nona Klippen has also dismissed another charge relating to Foster purportedly smashing his ex-girlfriend’s cell phone as she was attempting to contact police, and reduced the weapons charge against Foster from a felony to a misdemeanor.

Foster’s ex-girlfriend, Elissa Ennis, testified last week that she fabricated allegations against Foster. After originally claiming Foster had beaten her and thrown her down stairs, Ennis admitted that her visible injuries had actually been suffered during a fight with another woman. Ennis, angry over a reported breakup between she and Foster, wanted to take Foster “down” by pinning domestic violence charges on him.

Although Ennis recanted her allegations, the Santa Clara County district attorney’s office did not drop charges against Foster. Nevertheless, Judge Klippen made “multiple references” to insufficient evidence in her ruling, tweets Nick Wagoner of ESPN.com, an indication that she was satisfied with Ennis’ re-telling of events.

The 49ers had been adamant that they would quickly release Foster if any domestic violence accusations were proven true, but that doesn’t appear to be an issue any longer. Foster will need to appear in court for his now-misdemeanor weapons charge, and is also facing a marijuana charge in Alabama. While neither offense may result in much legal action, Foster could still be subject to an NFL-imposed suspension.

Now that the domestic violence charges against Foster have been dropped, he will be allowed to rejoin the 49ers as early as Thursday, the club announced today.

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