OAKLAND -- Charges will not be filed against former University of California football star Marshawn Lynch despite an Oakland woman's accusations that he choked, slapped and sexually assaulted her, prosecutors said Monday.
An Alameda County Superior Court judge granted a restraining order Friday to the woman, who described herself in court documents as Lynch's ex-girlfriend. Lynch was not at the hearing.
Lynch, 20, announced earlier this month that he was skipping his senior year at Cal to enter the upcoming NFL draft, where he is expected to be selected in the first round.
But prosecutors said a lack of evidence -- including no visible injuries or photographs of injuries, a witness' statement contradicting the accuser and inconsistencies in the woman's own story -- meant the case couldn't go forward.
"We have an ethical obligation that we have to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt. And I don't think we can," said Alameda County senior deputy district attorney Kim Hunter.
The Pac-10 Offensive Player of the Year allegedly assaulted the 20-year-old woman on Dec. 13 outside her mother's house in Oakland, according to a civil complaint she filed six days later.
"He said he was going to kill me because no one else can have me," she said in her application for the restraining order.
Lynch forced her into the back of a car, where he slapped her, choked her, made her touch his genitals and told the car's driver to take off with her, according to the document.
"Based upon the information that I'm privy to, including an interview with a third person who was present at the time, those allegations are false," said Lynch's attorney, M. Gerald Schwartzbach.
According to court filings in the application for the restraining order, Lynch was served in mid-January at a gym on Cal's campus with notice of Friday's hearing. But Lynch's lawyer said Lynch could never have received the notice because the star running back was out of the state training at the time.
Lynch's accuser said the two dated throughout their senior year in high school and for most of Lynch's freshman year at Cal.
"I just want justice for what he did now. I'm not trying to bring up the past," she said in a phone interview Monday.
Schwartzbach said he questioned the timing of the accuser's motives given Lynch's recent decision to go pro.
"I think Marshawn's desire is to go on with his life and his career," he said.
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