Prosecutors Sack Sapp's Domestic Battery Charges

Former football star Warren Sapp will dance away from domestic battery charges after the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office said it won't prosecute him for his Super Bowl weekend beating arrest.

The charges were dropped after there were inconsistencies in the victim's statements and the evidence collected.

Sapp, 37, was facing one count of misdemeanor domestic battery for the Feb. 6 arrest at the Shore Club Hotel in Miami Beach, which happened just a day before kickoff of Super Bowl XLIV. 

The victim had a swollen knee and bruises on her neck, according to an arrest affidavit. She told detectives that she was partying with Sapp and her friends at the hotel and asked for his room key when she grew tired. Sapp reportedly woke up the victim a few hours later and they started to argue. She told investigators that Sapp started to choke her and pushed her down on a couch.

As the argument escalated, Sapp grabbed the woman by her shirt and neck and threw her down again, the affidavit states.

Sapp told investigators that he let the woman stay in his room but asked her to leave a few hours later. He told police that the woman fell on her leg when he tried to help her get off a couch.

Sapp's attorney, Christopher Lyons, said his client was "always confident that the system would work." Sapp didn't attend Wednesday's hearing.

Sapp, who works as an analyst for NFL Network and was set to appear on the network's Super Bowl broadcast, was taken off the broadcast.

A star lineman at the University of Miami, Sapp played defensive tackle for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Oakland Raiders during his NFL career. He was also once a contestant on ABC's "Dancing with the Stars."

Copyright Associated Press / NBC 6 South Florida

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