Former NFL player charged in Pierce County with beating ex-girlfriend, making threats

A former NFL player is accused of beating up his ex-girlfriend in Pierce County and threatening to kill a former friend.

Austin Seferian-Jenkins, 29, was charged Monday with fourth-degree assault, felony harassment and interfering with the reporting of domestic violence. In the other case, he was charged with two counts of felony harassment.

Seferian-Jenkins was scheduled to be arraigned Monday afternoon.

Prosecutors are asking for $50,000 bail, arguing that the former football player poses a safety risk to his ex-girlfriend and the community. They also pointed out his 2020 DUI in Gig Harbor.

“Given that the defendant is currently under court conditions for a DUI deferred prosecution and yet was at a bar when he called the victim in this case to pick him up, he has demonstrated that he is not willing to abide by court orders,” deputy prosecuting attorney Nicole Fensterbush wrote in court documents.

Seferian-Jenkins grew up in Gig Harbor, played for the University of Washington and was the 38th overall pick in the 2014 NFL Draft. The tight end was taken by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who released him after a DUI arrest in 2016.

He also played for the New York Jets and the Jacksonville Jaguars, and in 2019 was signed by the New England Patriots but then released.

Charging papers give this account of the assault and harassment:

Sheriff’s deputies received a report Friday night from a passerby who saw a man beating up a woman in a car parked in Fox Island.

Shortly afterward, Seferian-Jenkins’ ex-girlfriend called 911 and told dispatchers the former NFL player had assaulted her.

He was at a bar and called her for a ride home.

“She felt bad, so she agreed to give him a ride,” records say.

As they were driving, Seferian-Jenkins got upset and allegedly punched the woman in the chest. She pulled over and demanded that he get out of her car. When he refused, she grabbed her cell phone to call 911 but Seferian-Jenkins “continued to hit her and then fish hooked her mouth,” prosecutors wrote in charging papers. “He then told her he would kill her, her son and her ex-boyfriend numerous times.”

Another person stopped to help, and both Seferian-Jenkins and his ex-girlfriend got out of her car. Once Seferian-Jenkins was distracted, the woman got back in her vehicle and drove away.

He allegedly called her several times after the incident, but she did not pick up the phone. Deputies were notified while interviewing the woman that Seferian-Jenkins was at the woman’s house, so they called him. He agreed to meet them at a U.S. Post Office to be taken into custody.

Deputies noted the victim was bleeding from the mouth, had a swollen bruise on her clavicle and a scratch on her forearm.

The investigation into the domestic violence incident is ongoing.

In a separate case from July that was also charged Monday, Seferian-Jenkins allegedly threatened to kill an old friend and the friend’s 81-year-old mother.

The friend said he and his mother were driving home when they passed Seferian-Jenkins walking on the road. When Seferian-Jenkins flipped off his former friend, the friend pulled over to ask what was wrong.

Prosecutors say “... the defendant began to scream that he was going to kill (the man) and (his mother), and that he was going to come to their house and kill them,” records say.

The friend drove off and called 911 to report the threats, which scared the elderly woman, who described Seferian-Jenkins as “big” and “violent.”

Seferian-Jenkins also is accused of showing up at the friend’s house in the middle of the night, banging on the door and demanding a ride.

When he again yelled threats and flipped the man off in August, the former friend again called 911.

The man “advised law enforcement that he considers the defendant a threat to him and his property and wants it on record that if the defendant shows up at his house he is going to shoot him,” records say.

Seferian-Jenkins’ history with substance abuse dates back to at least March 2013 when he was playing football at the University of Washington.

That year, he pleaded guilty to a drunk driving charge and was sentenced to one day in jail. He was also ordered to install an ignition interlock device on his vehicle.

He was arrested again in September 2016 for DUI in Florida. The Highway Patrol there said Seferian-Jenkins was driving 75 to 80 mph in a 55 mph zone and cut off a trooper while improperly changing lanes, according to NFL.com.

The Buccaneers released Seferian-Jenkins after that incident even though he’d only played two games.

His third DUI arrest came in March 2020 after police spotted him driving erratically in Gig Harbor, speeding in a 30 mph zone and almost driving onto a freeway off-ramp.

Seferian-Jenkins told NJ.com last year that he quit drinking.