WILLIAMSON COUNTY, Texas — A month removed from scoring in the Super Bowl, Kansas City Chief wide receiver and former longhorn Xavier Worthy is now in the heat of a criminal investigation in Central Texas.
The Texas Ex was booked into the Williamson County Jail on Friday for assault against a family or household member by impeding their breathing or circulation, a third-degree felony. He was released from jail just a day later.
In a statement from Worthy’s attorneys, they claim the complainant was asked to leave Worthy’s house. Below is part of that statement:
“The complainant was recently asked to vacate Mr. Worthy’s residence upon discovery of her infidelity. She has refused to do so and made a number of extortive efforts prior to resorting to this baseless allegation against Mr. Worthy.”
Under Texas Law, officers are supposed to make an arrest when they respond to domestic violence calls. Williamson County District Attorney Shawn Dick said his team decides within 15-18 hours of a case being filed whether to accept the charges or decline them based on the evidence.
“We make all those evaluations and decisions on dozens of cases a day,” Dick said.
Last year, his office reviewed more than 3,900 cases and declined about 800 of them.
Why was Worthy’s case dismissed?
Dick said the decision to decline Worthy’s case came after additional interviews with more witnesses on Saturday whom the sheriff’s department was not able to talk to the day prior.
“The police officers learned a lot more information overnight and into the day hours of Saturday,” Dick said.
Overall, he said there’s a high threshold to decide to push a case forward.
“That power to choose to have someone arrested and to move forward on felony charges affects a lot of people’s life. We take that responsibility very seriously,” Dick said. “We really should not be ethically moving forward with cases that we don’t believe that we’ll believe that we’ll be able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Was Worthy given special treatment because of his status?
Dick said other than the fact that the subject of this case is high profile, nothing was out of the ordinary.
“Most people have much lower profile circumstances, but that’s really the only difference; the process is the same,” Worthy said.
The Williamson County Sheriff’s Office is still investigating the incident and has the ability to bring charges back to the DA’s office to review again.