Oakland's Donald Penn, Dallas' David Irving have cases against them dropped

Frank Schwab
·NFL writer

Oakland Raiders offensive tackle Donald Penn and Dallas Cowboys defensive lineman David Irving won’t be charged in separate domestic violence investigations that brought some attention in recent weeks.

Penn will not be charged due to a lack of sufficient evidence, a Los Angeles City Attorney spokesman told NBC Sports Bay Area and TMZ. Police were notified of a possible domestic violence incident at Penn’s house on April 29, but the couple immediately put out a statement that an argument never got physical.

“The office rejected this case because of lack of corroboration and on the ground that there is no reasonable likelihood of conviction on the domestic violence matter,” a spokesperson told TMZ. “Bottom line, lack of sufficient evidence.”

About a week earlier, Irving was in the middle of an incident that was investigated by police. Irving’s girlfriend made multiple allegations to police that he assaulted her on April 21. That became very public when she sent out tweets from his Twitter account with various allegations. Not long after that, Irving’s girlfriend said in a statement that the allegations were false and added “David did not put his hands on me at any time.”

According to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, Frisco (Texas) police said they closed the case involving Irving on Wednesday and made his file inactive.

The NFL has punished players before in domestic violence cases even when there is no conviction, but legally Penn and Irving find themselves clear of any wrongdoing.

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Frank Schwab is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdown.corner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!