{"id":455747,"date":"2026-02-08T04:50:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-08T04:50:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/455747\/"},"modified":"2026-02-08T04:50:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T04:50:08","slug":"falcons-james-pearce-jr-arrested-in-florida-on-battery-charges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/455747\/","title":{"rendered":"Falcons’ James Pearce Jr. arrested in Florida on battery charges"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Marc RaimondiFeb 7, 2026, 09:36 PM ET<\/p>\n

Close<\/a>Marc Raimondi’s first year covering the Falcons was 2024, but it wasn’t his first year at ESPN. He joined the company in 2019 and was a top combat sports reporter. He also covered professional wrestling and wrote the book “Say Hello to the Bad Guys: How Pro Wrestling’s New World Order Changed America,” which was published by Simon & Schuster in 2025. Raimondi also worked for the New York Post and Newsday, beginning in 2009, covering high school and college sports, plus the NFL, NFL, MLB and NHL.<\/p>\n

Multiple Authors<\/p>\n

Atlanta Falcons<\/a> rookie linebacker James Pearce Jr<\/a>. was arrested Saturday in Florida after a domestic dispute involving Los Angeles Sparks<\/a> forward Rickea Jackson<\/a>, police said.<\/p>\n

Pearce was arrested in Miami-Dade County on two counts of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and a count of aggravated stalking. He was also charged with fleeing and eluding police officers, aggravated battery of a law enforcement officer and resisting an officer without violence to his person.<\/p>\n

According to online records, Pearce was booked at Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center at 6:58 p.m. Saturday.<\/p>\n

Doral police chief Edwin Lopez told WPLG-TV<\/a> that the dispute was between Pearce and Jackson. Lopez told the outlet that Pearce was arrested after fleeing a domestic dispute and crashing his vehicle during a police chase.<\/p>\n

“We are aware of an incident involving James Pearce Jr., in Miami,” the Falcons said in a prepared statement. “We are in the process of gathering more information and will not have any further comment on an open legal matter at this time.”<\/p>\n

Pearce, 22, was third in AP NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year voting. He had 10.5 sacks this past season, the most for a rookie since Micah Parsons<\/a> in 2024. The Falcons selected Pearce with the 26th pick in the 2025 NFL draft.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Marc RaimondiFeb 7, 2026, 09:36 PM ET CloseMarc Raimondi’s first year covering the Falcons was 2024, but it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":455748,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[349,99],"class_list":["post-455747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=455747"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455747\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/455748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=455747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=455747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=455747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}