Criminal Charges Will Not Be Filed Against Michael Crabtree
By Josh Hill
San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Michael Crabtree has avoided all criminal charges stemming from a rape allegation that local Bay Area police were investigating. Three weeks ago, a woman accused Crabtree of sexually assaulting her mere hours after the 49ers defeated the Green Bay Packers in the NFC Divisional playoffs.
District attorney George Gascon determined that based on the evidence provided from the investigation, his office would not be filing any criminal charges “at this time”.
“The San Francisco Police Department — Special Victims Unit completed and submitted a thorough investigation of the allegations against Michael Crabtree,” Gascon said.
Since news broke that Crabtree was being investigated for rape, police note that he was very cooperative and that Crabtree was never actually arrested or formally charged. 49ers general manager Trent Baalke said the team was very pleased that the authorities didn’t wish to further investigate the matter, and that Crabtree can now turn his focus back to helping the 49ers win a Super Bowl.
“Michael and the team can now put this behind us and move forward,” Baalke said.
Crabtree was in Atlanta when word came down that he was being investigated, so there wasn’t much drama as to whether or not he’d miss the NFC Championship game. There was a question of whether or not Crabtree was going to miss the Super Bowl if the investigation turned up any incriminating evidence.
But as it appears, Crabtree wasn’t ever involved in this assault, and the whole matter is now going to go away for good.