Domestic violence charge against Reuben Foster dropped

ByABC News
January 3, 2019, 10:56 AM

The State Attorney's Office in Florida has dropped a misdemeanor domestic violence charge against Redskins linebacker Reuben Foster, according to Hillsborough County court records.

The charge stemmed from a Nov. 24 incident between Foster and his former girlfriend the night before his former team, the 49ers, played the Buccaneers in Tampa.

Foster had been scheduled for arraignment Thursday in Hillsborough County.

Foster was released San Francisco in late November and claimed on waivers by the Redskins just three days after being arrested. The team received heavy criticism for picking up Foster. He remains on the commissioner's exempt list.

Tampa Police said Foster and the woman were involved in a verbal altercation and that "Foster slapped her phone out of her hand, pushed her in the chest area, and slapped her with an open hand on the left side of her face." Police said a 1-inch scratch was observed on the woman's left collarbone.

According to the arrest report, the woman pressing charges is Elissa Ennis, with whom Foster has been involved off and on for three years. Ennis later told her story to "Good Morning America" in December.

It wasn't their first domestic incident. Last February, he was arrested on suspicion of domestic violence and possession of an assault rifle; a loaded Sig Sauer 516 rifle was discovered on a bathroom floor. The domestic violence charge was dropped in May when Ennis recanted her allegations that Foster had hit her. But Foster pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor weapons charge and was given two years of probation and banned from possessing guns during this time.

Foster served a two-game suspension to start the 2018 NFL season, stemming from an arrest for misdemeanor marijuana possession last January. Charges were dropped after he completed a first-time-offender diversion course.

ESPN's John Keim contributed to this report.