{"id":463280,"date":"2026-02-09T06:48:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T06:48:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/463280\/"},"modified":"2026-02-09T06:48:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T06:48:13","slug":"falcons-pearce-posts-bond-after-alleged-dispute-with-wnba-player","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/463280\/","title":{"rendered":"Falcons’ Pearce posts bond after alleged dispute with WNBA player"},"content":{"rendered":"

Atlanta Falcons<\/a> linebacker James Pearce Jr<\/a>., following what police said was a domestic dispute with WNBA player Rickea Jackson<\/a> that resulted in five felony charges against him, is out of jail after posting bond of $20,500 on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Pearce, who finished third in AP NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year voting at NFL Honors on Thursday, was arrested Saturday<\/a> in Miami-Dade County on two felony counts of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and a felony count of aggravated stalking. Other charges include fleeing and eluding police officers and aggravated battery of a law enforcement officer — also felonies — and a misdemeanor count of resisting an officer without violence to his person.<\/p>\n

Pearce was released from the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on Sunday afternoon, and his case was assigned to the felony domestic crimes intake unit. He was also given a pretrial conditional stay-away order with regard to Jackson, a forward with the Los Angeles Sparks<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Editor’s Picks<\/a><\/p>\n

Doral Police Chief Edwin Lopez told WPLG-TV<\/a> on Saturday that Pearce was arrested after fleeing the alleged dispute and then crashing his vehicle during a police chase.<\/p>\n

The Falcons, who issued a statement saying they were “gathering more information” on the incident, are under new leadership with head coach Kevin Stefanski, general manager Ian Cunningham and president of football Matt Ryan. They face an offseason made more difficult by Pearce’s arrest and legal situation.<\/p>\n

Pearce set a Falcons rookie record with a team-leading 10\u00bd sacks.<\/p>\n

Atlanta traded its 2026 first-round draft pick to the Los Angeles Rams<\/a> to select Pearce last year with the No. 26 pick. After the Falcons drafted edge rusher Jalon Walker<\/a> at No. 15, it was a notable investment — essentially doubling down on the team’s commitment to improve its pass rush.<\/p>\n

At the time, there were questions about Pearce’s character and commitment to football that caused him to drop in the draft. He had been mentioned as Atlanta’s possible choice at the No. 15 spot used to select Walker. Instead, he was still available late in the first round.<\/p>\n

Then-general manager Terry Fontenot, when asked about the off-field questions surrounding Pearce, said the team was “about as thorough and detailed as you can possibly be” when doing its research on him, including talking with “everybody that’s surrounded with him.”<\/p>\n

Led by Pearce, the Falcons (8-9) set a team record with 57 sacks one year after finishing next to last in the league with 31.<\/p>\n

ESPN’s Marc Raimondi and The Associated Press contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Atlanta Falcons linebacker James Pearce Jr., following what police said was a domestic dispute with WNBA player Rickea…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":462485,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":["post-463280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=463280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463280\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/462485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=463280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=463280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=463280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}