Jackson Mahomes, the younger brother of NFL superstar and Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, was arrested last year on three charges of felony sexual battery and one count of misdemeanor battery that stemmed from an incident in February at a bar in the Kansas City suburbs.
Prosecutors announced this week that they had dropped the three felony charges against Mahomes after the alleged victim in the incident refused to cooperate or testify at a trial, according to Breitbart.
Mahomes, a prominent social media influencer, is alleged to have forcibly kissed the bar's female owner multiple times. Yet, while the felony sexual battery charges have been dropped, prosecutors intend to move forward with the misdemeanor charge that stems from Mahomes allegedly pushing a male waiter who attempted to intervene on behalf of the owner.
The Associated Press reported that Mahomes was arrested in May and charged over his alleged actions on February 25 at Aspens Restaurant and Lounge in Overland Park, Kansas, where he was caught on video pushing the waiter and forcibly kissing the establishment's owner, Aspen Vaughn, three separate times without her consent after grabbing her by the throat.
Vaughn initially spoke out to the media about what happened -- which was also caught by a surveillance camera -- and noted that Mahomes had previously caused trouble in her bar and been asked to leave but now, according to prosecutors, no longer wants to cooperate in the effort to bring that troublemaker to justice.
It is worth pointing out that Vaughn has since been forced to close her establishment due to the bad publicity she received for speaking out which led to a steep dropoff in business as well as death threats and harassment against her plus vandalism against the building.
The Kansas City Star reported that Vaughn, 41, initially told the outlet of what allegedly occurred shortly after the incident and said at the time, "He forcibly kissed me out of nowhere, and I’m telling him, pushing him off saying 'what are you doing?' and then he proceeded to do it two more times where the last time I was pushing him off and I can see on the cameras that somebody was outside the office door and I was yelling for them to come help because he’s big and massive."
However, Vaughn never filed a formal complaint with the police and now regrets ever speaking out, given the results of her coming forward, and reportedly informed prosecutors in a November 29 affidavit that she would refuse to testify against Mahomes, 23, and would even invoke her Fifth Amendment right if compelled to do so during the trial that is scheduled for March.
In the filing with the court that was just made public this week, Vaughn told prosecutors, "I do not want to cooperate with the State in prosecuting the matter and wish the matter to be dismissed as to anything involving me."
Johnson County District Attorney’s Office assistant prosecutor Megan Ahsens told the court Wednesday had previously been cooperative but now was adamantly opposed to aiding the prosecution any further, "And that if she were compelled to testify after we immunized her, she would say that this was consensual. That was a complete and total reversal from everything else that she has told us and other people."
The Star reported that while prosecutors asked presiding Judge Thomas Sutherland to drop the three felony sexual battery charges due to Vaughn's sudden uncooperative turn, they insisted that they still intended to move forward with the single misdemeanor battery charge against Mahomes for pushing the unnamed waiter, 19, whose father made the initial 911 call to report the incident.
As such, the trial set for March 25, which is expected to last a couple of days, remains on the court's schedule. Per USA Today, Mahomes currently remains free on a $100,000 bond.
The AP noted that Mahomes' attorney, Brandan Davies, said in response to the development that his client "has done nothing wrong. We had full confidence that the truth of the matter would ultimately be revealed."
