Why Hasn't Ezekiel Elliott Been Arrested?

Yesterday, I saw a video of Ezekiel Elliott, football man contracted to the Dallas Cowboys, pulling down a woman’s shirt to expose her breast. The assault was captured on video because Elliott did this during a Saint Patrick’s Day celebration.

I say “assault,” because I have no other word to describe what I saw. Here’s the Texas assault statute:

Sec. 22.01. ASSAULT. (a) A person commits an offense if the person:

(1) intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly causes bodily injury to another, including the person’s spouse;
(2) intentionally or knowingly threatens another with imminent bodily injury, including the person’s spouse; or
(3) intentionally or knowingly causes physical contact with another when the person knows or should reasonably believe that the other will regard the contact as offensive or provocative.

In the video, the woman and Elliott are on a roof, partying and watching the parade. She seems to be mugging for the crowd, and motions to her breasts and to Elliott. Elliott, without any even patina of consent, reaches over and pulls down her tank top, exposing her breast. She quickly pushes him away and covers up.

That looks like physical contact with another when the person should reasonably believe that the other will regard the contact as offensive or provocative.

So… why the hell hasn’t Ezekiel Elliott been arrested and charged with a crime already? We have him on video violating another person. Has nobody shown the evidence to Dallas Police? AM I TAKING CRAZY PILLS?

Elliott’s defense, at least the one being put out by his people, is that she was cool with it. I’m not exaggerating. From TMZ:

We spoke with Elliott’s rep who told us the woman wasn’t upset … and actually hung out with Zeke and a group of friends after the parade ended.

Is that the rule now? You can expose a woman in public without her consent as long as she hangs out with you afterwards?

Moreover, Elliott’s people released an “extended cut” of the video. After the incident, Elliott attempts to expose her again, but this time she slaps his hand away and gives the crowd a cleavage shot.

I’m not at all sure how this additional evidence is supposed to help Elliott’s position.

A) The slap away kind of CLEARLY shows that she did not consent to having her bare breasts exposed to the crowd.
B) The cleavage flash shows that she was, you know, FULLY CAPABLE of deciding for herself what and how much of herself she wanted to share in public. They’re her breasts, she can do with them what she wants. ELLIOTT had no right to make that decision for her, at any point, for any reason.

I can’t help feeling like Elliott’s people put out the extended video to slut-shame the woman. “Look, she consented to show her cleavage to randos on the street. That… uhh… makes the part where she didn’t consent to show her bare breast… uhh… well, just look at her.”

Well, as long as we are talking about prior bad acts, this seems like a good time to mention that Elliott has been accused of domestic violence in Ohio. Columbus prosecutors eventually dropped the charges. If you are wondering, YES, Elliott was a star football player at Ohio State, located in Columbus, Ohio.

The sports world is, myopically, handling this like a sports problem. “Should The NFL Suspend Ezekiel Elliott?” “Can The Cowboys Rely On Their Immature Running Back?” I subjected myself to ESPN’s “First Take” this morning, their question presented was “Does Dallas [as in the Cowboys] Have A Ezekiel Elliott Problem?”

The only relevant question is: Does The City Of Dallas Have Laws Against Assault? IF YES, then it doesn’t matter if your name is Ezekiel Elliott or J.R. Ewing or Captain freaking Lone-Star.

I don’t care if it’s only a misdemeanor crime, it’s still a crime. It’s still a PROBLEM if Dallas allows people to be assaulted during its parades and does nothing about it.

I’m not going to lie, this story has really disturbed me. “Don’t take off a person’s clothes unless they ask you to.” THAT IS A RULE. OF HUMAN SOCIETIES. Failure to enforce that rule just leads to F**KING ANARCHY. There’s hardly any point in having laws if people can just rip your clothes off. It is inconceivable that, when faced with somebody who so obviously flaunts our social compact, our first question is, “Well, can he still tote the rock on Sundays?”

Ezekiel Elliot assaulted a woman, on video. And then attempted to do it again. BOOK HIM. How is it even POSSIBLE that his only punishment is up to his employer?

Ezekiel Elliott Exposes Woman’s Bare Breast … at St. Patty’s Party (Update) [TMZ]

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Elie Mystal is an editor of Above the Law and the Legal Editor for More Perfect. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at [email protected]. He will resist.