Milton resident and Buffalo Bills running back LeSean McCoy has hired a high-profile Atlanta attorney to defend him against allegations of domestic violence after his ex-girlfriend was assaulted during a home invasion Tuesday.
Police in Milton are remaining tight-lipped about the early Tuesday morning incident that ended with Delicia Cordon, 34, in a hospital. Cordon is McCoy’s ex-girlfriend. Police have not released information about a suspect, only saying it was a lone intruder.
McCoy, 29, has twice tried to have Cordon evicted from the five-bedroom home on Hickory Pass, according to court records, but Cordon’s lawyer, Tanya Mitchell Graham, claims that Cordon has lived in the home since October 2016 and the two were discussing marriage as recently as May.
BACKGROUND | LeSean McCoy's ex-girlfriend victim of targeted assault at Milton home
Graham said that Cordon suffered injuries to her head, face and arms during the attack in which a “male assailant” hit her with a firearm. Graham also said that the man entered the home “with no signs of forced entry.”
Those claims are supported by a police report that was sent to several media outlets on Wednesday. A spokesperson for the city of Milton said that report hasn't been sent to the AJC yet because the police department has "received an inordinate number of requests" and they are fulfilling open records requests in the order in which they were received.
The heavily redacted police report offers little details on the incident, but says that four crimes occurred — armed robbery, aggravated assault with a firearm, aggravated battery and residential burglary with no forced entry. Seven police officers responded to the 911 call at McCoy’s residence at 3:18 a.m. Tuesday.
The report also notes that a juvenile was in the home during the invasion.
Police previously said that this was “not a random incident” and the residence was specifically targeted. Police also said that the suspect “demanded specific items from the victim.”
Graham says that those items were jewelry that McCoy had previously gifted to Cordon and asked for her to return them on multiple occasions. Graham also claims that McCoy “directed others” to remove Cordon’s things from the home on June 1, but Cordon caught the crew on surveillance cameras that she was watching on her phone and called police, who stopped the removal of her things.
"Well, he asked her to leave. She should've left," a neighbor of McCoy's, Glenda Ensley, told Channel 2 Action News. "He asked for the jewelry back and I'm pretty sure it was really expensive, so just give it back and go."
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Along with a statement, Graham also sent photos of Cordon to the AJC, showing her face and hand bruised, cut and bloodied after the home invasion. The same photo of Cordon’s face was shared by an unknown Instagram user Tuesday morning, accompanied by a message accusing McCoy of domestic violence, child abuse, animal abuse and taking performance enhancing drugs. The post by “@miamor_i_adore” was later deleted.
McCoy made a brief statement on his own Instagram page Tuesday, denying those allegations.
Though he isn't facing any criminal charges, the Bills running back has hired Don Samuel of Atlanta-based firm Garland, Samuel & Loeb to defend him. Samuel most recently was part of Buckhead attorney Tex McIver's legal team in a high-profile trial. McIver was sentenced to life in prison after he was found guilty of murdering his wife.
Past clients of Samuel include former Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis, Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and Atlanta-based rapper T.I. He was also counsel in the murder trials of Jim Williams — a Savannah antique dealer who was written about in a book, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.
On the day of the home invasion, a hearing on McCoy’s most recent attempt to evict Cordon was scheduled. An associate attorney with Graham’s Atlanta-based firm attended the hearing and it was granted a continuance. The new date for the eviction hearing is Aug. 14, court records show.
McCoy’s attorneys have said that he was in Miami when the home invasion occurred.
"It raises some red flags that, the very day there is supposed to be a hearing related to evicting this woman from Mr. McCoy's home, that all of a sudden there is a home invasion," Esther Panitch, a legal analyst, told Channel 2. "You could read it both ways. At the end of the day, who has more to gain from this? Does the woman because she has nowhere else to go possibly? Maybe he was so angry about what was going on that he decided to send somebody to do this."
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McCoy is coming off a season where he helped lead the Bills to the playoffs, tallying more than 1,500 yards from scrimmage and scoring eight touchdowns. He is a 9-year veteran of the NFL and was drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles in 2009 out of the University of Pittsburgh.
A former teammate of McCoy's, offensive lineman Richie Incognito, defended him on Twitter Tuesday, saying "I support and stand by my boy, Shady. I know the full story and he didn't do it. People can be quick to make false assumptions without knowing the full story."
The now retired 11-year NFL veteran added, "She was definitely assaulted. Police were involved. Shady was in Florida and she was in Atlanta."
Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com said there's a chance McCoy could be placed on the Commissioner Exempt List by the NFL, which would make him ineligible to practice or play with the Bills for an indefinite amount of time. The Bills are set to report to training camp on July 25.
An unnamed source "familiar with" the NFL's inner workings told the Washington Post, "There's not much that (league leaders) can do until the police get further along. It's very early in the process."
The NFL and the Bills have not released any additional statements since Tuesday.
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