Green Bay Packers running back Josh Jacobs now faces two misdemeanor charges after prosecutors in Brown County, Wisconsin, completed a months-long review of a May incident at his home. The district attorney’s office announced Thursday that it had filed counts of battery and criminal damage to property, both Class A misdemeanors.
Each carries a possible penalty of up to nine months in jail and a $10,000 fine if Jacobs is convicted. An initial court appearance is scheduled for mid-November.
The filing represents a significant reduction from the five charges that accompanied Jacobs’s arrest in late May. Those original accusations included a felony count of strangulation and suffocation along with several misdemeanors that carried domestic-abuse enhancers.
After Jacobs turned himself in, he spent a night in jail and was released the next day while prosecutors said they needed more time and additional evidence. District Attorney David Lasee later explained that some of the material his office ultimately relied on became available only after extensive forensic work by investigators.
Jacobs’s attorneys issued a brief statement emphasizing that the charges that were filed do not include a domestic-violence designation. They said the allegations will be handled in court rather than through public comment and that their client respects the process the district attorney followed.
Jacobs has continued to practice with the Packers throughout the offseason and preseason except for a short absence immediately after his release from jail and a brief groin injury earlier in camp.
The criminal complaint describes a morning disturbance on May 23 that began after a woman visiting from Chicago looked through Jacobs’s phone. Police were called to the residence in the village of Hobart.
Investigators later obtained garage-camera footage that, according to charging documents, shows Jacobs grabbing the woman, throwing her to the ground so that she struck her head, taking her phone, and later damaging a device. The woman told officers she suffered a lump on her head and had difficulty walking afterward.
The NFL has not yet imposed discipline under its personal-conduct policy. League officials have said they are monitoring developments and will review the matter now that formal charges exist.
Teams and the league have historically waited for legal proceedings to advance before acting, though the league has signaled a desire to move more quickly in some recent cases.
Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst indicated this week that the organization has prepared for the possibility that Jacobs could miss time.
At 28 and coming off a 929-yard season in which he also missed two games, Jacobs remains the team’s primary back.
Green Bay holds a sizable cap number on his contract after this year, and younger options such as MarShawn Lloyd are waiting for larger roles. Whether Jacobs plays Week 1, and whether he remains in Green Bay beyond 2026, now depends as much on the courts and the league office as on the field.
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