In 2015, Josh Brown was arrested for domestic violence against his wife Molly Brown which triggered an NFL investigation. The NFL stated that the investigation took 10 months and concluded that they could not produce enough evidence since the victim didn’t cooperate and that the charges were dropped. As a result, Brown was given only a 1 game suspension for the arrest. On Oct 19th, the NY Daily News published a story detailing police reports in which Brown told police that he had become violent with his wife more than 20 times, even while pregnant. So the question here is, where did this new information come from that the NFL did not discover during their 10-month investigation??
It turns out that these details were available on the May 2015 police report when Brown was arrested, which triggered the one game suspension. And according to Deadspin reporter Diana Moskovitz, all the NFL needed to do was submit a records request to the King County Sheriff’s office:
I sent in a public records request to the King County Sheriff’s Office. Since then, whenever they have had records to release, they have included me on the list of reporters who get them. Getting the law enforcement documents has mostly been as simple as hitting refresh on my laptop.
In addition to that, Josh Brown’s divorce records were publicly available. If the NFL wanted to find more details on what type of abuse occurred during their marriage they could have submitted a records request for the Brown’s divorce files.
Even before yesterday’s release of documents by the sheriff’s office in King County, Wash. in which New York Giants kicker Josh Brown admits in his own words that he abused his then-wife Molly, there was very similar evidence in his divorce file—a publicly available document that anyone could get. A month ago, in a story about how the NFL’s role in the Browns’ case largely failed Molly Brown, I quoted records from their divorce file in which she cited letters in which Josh Brown admitted to abusing her. They were filed with the court under seal, which is understandable, given the ways they also involve Josh Brown’s mental health
So basically the records that the NY Daily News published were there all long for the NFL to access during their 10 month investigation and they apparently made no such effort. These revelations pose serious questions. Are the NFL investigators incompetent or did they ignore the details to avoid yet another black eye? It’s hard to imagine that the NFL would not know to request these details during their 10-month investigation, especially given the numerous previous incidents with other players. This opens the door for players and fans to question the way the NFL conducts its investigations, and ask if Brown’s actions were covered up by the league. With Ray Rice, the video forced their hand, but with Josh Brown, the devil is in the details and there is no devil without details.
Flip the page to see Brown’s divorce file.