Florida State QB Deondre Francois no longer being investigated for domestic violence
UPDATED WEDNESDAY 7 p.m. ET
The Tallahassee Police Department said the investigation into the incident has ended because both Francois and the woman allegedly involved provided conflicting statements and there are no independent witnesses.
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Florida State quarterback Deondre Francois is being investigated for domestic violence.
The Tallahassee Democrat reported the news Wednesday morning, saying the investigation stems from an incident that occurred “early Wednesday morning.” Police responded to an incident at an apartment complex around 12:35 a.m. Wednesday morning.
The incident involves a woman who says she is pregnant with Francois’ child. Per police, the two told very different versions of what took place. No arrests have been made.
Warchant.com documented both versions of events.
Francois said he was relaxing at home with friend and FSU teammate Zaquandre White when his girlfriend returned home and brought up a previous argument. Francois said he asked his girlfriend to leave, at which point she became angry and began “breaking things.” He said she threw a vase across the room, causing it to break as well.
Francois said he tried to pick his girlfriend up by wrapping his arms around her “like a hug” to stop her from causing damage and to remove her from the house. But he said he let her go when she started to swing at him and said she would call police to report him for domestic violence.
Francois also requested that the responding police officers take photographs of the scene and the damaged property, which they did, according to the report.
While saying she did not want to press charges against Francois, she said the incident started when she talked to one of his friends and he told her she couldn’t speak to other guys. She said Francois broke down the door to her bedroom, picked her up and threw her to the ground, causing a cut on her forearm, and also tried to remove her from the house.
She also told police that she was about nine weeks’ pregnant with Francois baby and that she had told him previously about the pregnancy. The girlfriend then asked the police to take a photo of her injury, which they did.
Francois said the cut on her arm occurred when she broke the vase. White, his FSU teammate, backed up his version of the incident.
White provided a written statement and said that Francois only touched his girlfriend in an attempt to stop her from breaking things and to defend himself when she swung at him.
Francois suffered a torn patellar tendon in Florida State’s Week 1 loss to Alabama and never returned to the field during the 2017 season.
As FSU’s starter in 2016, Francois threw for 3,350 yards and 20 touchdowns as the Seminoles went 10-3. He was the ACC’s Rookie of the Year.
Francois’ injury forced FSU to start freshman James Blackman for the rest of the season. FSU started the year 3-6 but finished the season winning four in a row to finish 7-6. Before the regular season ended, Jimbo Fisher left for the Texas A&M job and FSU subsequently hired Willie Taggart from Oregon.
Francois has been expected to return to the starting role in 2018.
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Sam Cooper is a writer for the Yahoo Sports blogs. Have a tip? Email him or follow him on Twitter!
