WNBA standout Rickea Jackson recently revealed to the court that she feared for her life, prompting her to seek protection from her former boyfriend, NFL player James Pearce Jr. This dramatic plea for safety came last month following a troubling incident involving Pearce.
On February 7, the Atlanta Falcons linebacker found himself in legal trouble after being charged with battery and stalking. The charges arose from an alleged confrontation in Doral, Florida, where Pearce reportedly crashed his Lamborghini SUV into Jackson’s vehicle. This alarming encounter ended with six police officers restraining him on the ground, images of which swiftly circulated on social media.
In the aftermath of the incident, Jackson took further legal action. According to court documents obtained by the Daily Mail, she filed a petition for an injunction against dating violence just two days after Pearce’s arrest. Her court filing detailed a troubling pattern of behavior, alleging that Pearce had verbally and physically abused her multiple times. She also recounted threats on her life, including a chilling claim that Pearce threatened to suffocate her with a bag.
Jackson, a player for the Los Angeles Sparks, expressed a profound fear for her safety, stating her belief that Pearce might kill her if the court did not step in. Her urgent appeal for protection was met with relief as she was granted a temporary injunction to safeguard her from further harm.
Jackson filed a ‘petition for injunction for protection against dating violence’, writing that Pearce ‘verbally and physically abused me on more than one occasion’, as well as threatening to kill her and place a bag over her head, according to the court filing.
The Los Angeles Sparks basketball star said that she believed ‘James will kill me’ if the court didn’t intervene, and she was granted a temporary injunction.
Rickea Jackson has been granted a temporary restraining order against her ex James Pearce Jr
A hearing for a permanent injunction is scheduled for next month, but Pearce Jr is currently under order to not have any contact with Jackson, nor go within 500 feet of her home or place of employment, or within 100 feet of her vehicle.
The attorney for Pearce Jr did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Mail.
In the court documents, Jackson also alleges that Pearce Jr ‘became violent’ with her in January in a public dispute at a gas station after believing she had cheated on him with another man.
Jackson wrote that he ‘attacked me by snatching my cellular phone out of my hand, pulling my hair, and taking my personal belongings.’ She alleges that she broke up with him shortly after, only for him to go on a ‘never-ending campaign of threats, physical assaults and abuse against me’, even ‘sleeping in his vehicle outside my house’.
In a separate police report from the February 5 incident, Jackson detailed to cops her heightening fears that she was being stalked and harassed, and that she believed Pearce had tried to break into her apartment.
The Atlanta Falcons rookie faces charges of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, aggravated stalking and fleeing police after a domestic incident with Jackson in February
Jackson is not named in the police report, but her identity as the female involved in the case was confirmed by Doral Police Chief Edwin Lopez after the arrest, and her attorney has since confirmed she is ‘willing to testify’ against Pearce if the domestic violence charges against him go to trial.
The WNBA player claims she called 911 about Pearce at least seven times in the weeks leading up to his arrest.
During one police visit on January 28, the woman living at the home identified Pearce as the subject of a domestic disturbance complaint and is said to have told police that she did not want him to enter the property.
It is then alleged in the police report that she decided to leave the property and instead go to stay in a hotel, such was her ‘fear’ that the situation would escalate.
Earlier on January 28, police had attended another call to the property in ’emergency mode’ amid reports of a daytime burglary in progress.
The police report again describes Pearce as the ‘subject’, but it is unclear what occurred and Ms Jackson told police that she saw Pearce leaving before the cops arrived.
WNBA star Jackson (second left) was pictured alongside Pearce Jr at the NFL Draft last year
She is currently playing in Unrivaled for the Breeze, and was on court hours before the arrest
The 22-year-old finished third in the NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year voting at NFL Honors
Months earlier, on November 24, there was another domestic disturbance call in which Jackson alleged that Pearce had come to her property and wanted to enter after calling a landline ‘various times’.
She claimed that Pearce ‘owed her $70,000’ and the debt was the purpose of his visit, but that he left before police arrived.
Multiple further incidents were alleged in the police report, including on February 1 and 2, just days before Pearce was at NFL Honors and nominated for Defensive Rookie of the Year.
The incident has now thrown his NFL career into doubt at the end of his first season, though Pearce maintains his innocence.
