Florida State RB Dalvin Cook Found Not Guilty Of Misdemeanor Battery

Florida State RB Dalvin Cook, who was accused of punching a woman at a Tallahassee bar in June, has been found not guilty of misdemeanor battery by a Florida jury. Cook is currently suspended from the 10th-ranked Seminoles, but presumably will be reinstated to the team.

The AP reports that the accuser, Madison Geohegan, testified that she began arguing with a group of Florida State football players after one of them called her a whore. At first Cook tried to place peacemaker, according to Geohegan, but things quickly devolved:

But she testified that he became angry when she pushed Florida State wide receiver Travis Rudolph and when she told the group she wasn’t impressed that they were players. She told them she was dating Auburn defensive back T.J. Davis.

Geohegan told the jury that Cook shouted, “We can buy you in two years! Google me!”

“I said, ‘Everyone’s on Google,’” Geohegan testified. She said that is when Cook punched her. She said a group of players held him back while he kept flailing at her. Her friend, Keara Lubeskie, testified that Cook also hit her in the side as he was trying to punch Geohegan again.

According to the Palm Beach Post, the most significant testimony in the trial was given by the single defense witness, Florida State student Grant Jenkins. He was at the bar on the night in question, and testified that he witnessed the entire incident and never saw Cook strike Geohegan. Prosecutor Sarah Kathryn Dugan argued that Jenkins was just a “fan who came out of the woodwork because he wants to be involved,” but her attempt to damage Jenkins’s credibility was unsuccessful.

Cook’s arraignment and pre-trial hearing was originally scheduled for Sept. 2, three days before Florida State’s Sept. 5 opener, but the judge agreed with Cook’s demand for a speedy trial, and jury selection began on Friday. When the prosecution later tried to introduce new evidence, the judge disallowed it from being presented to the jury as both sides had previously agreed that they had exchanged all relevant evidence.

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