Norman Police: No charges will be filed in Spencer Jones bathroom brawl

DA Greg Mashburn says after a thorough investigation, he's decided it was just a "mutual combat situation" and little more than "a fist fight"

John E. Hoover | Mar 11, 2021

Norman Police announced Thursday they will not file charges in the Feb. 13 bathroom brawl between Oklahoma football player Spencer Jones, his friend and two MMA fighters.

“We have carefully considered the entirety of the circumstances surrounding the incident, including a previous altercation between the parties and the actions that led up to the physical fight caught on camera by a bystander,” Cleveland County district attorney Greg Mashburn said in a press release. “My office has decided that no criminal charges are appropriate as this appears to be a mutual combat situation in which both parties voluntarily engaged in a fist fight.”

READ THE FULL PRESS RELEASE

A video of the fight went viral on social media three weeks ago.

According to the release, NPD completed its investigation on Tuesday. Mashburn reviewed the department’s “thorough investigation,” including investigative reports, videos, witness statements and other documents.”

Thursday’s news doesn’t preclude the possibility of civil action. Jones — a former walk-on wide receiver and holder on the football team from Nashville who was placed on scholarship in December — reportedly suffered injuries severe enough to require surgery. His attorney, Woody Glass, told the OU Daily that Jones nearly lost his left eye and was merely trying to de-escalate hostilities in the restroom at Logie’s on the Corner, a Norman establishment on Campus Corner.

Walker Brown and Braden Brown, two brothers who grew up in a wrestling and MMA background, are the combatants with Jones and his friend in the video. Braden Brown said on social media they were left with no choice but to fight, and Walker Brown’s family started a GoFundMe page that has so far raised more than $65,000 to offset his medical and legal expenses.

Published Mar 11, 2021

JOHN E. HOOVER

John is an award-winning journalist whose work spans five decades in Oklahoma, with multiple state, regional and national awards as a sportswriter at various newspapers. During his newspaper career, John covered the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Arkansas Razorbacks and much more. In 2016, John changed careers, migrating into radio and launching a YouTube channel, and has built a successful independent media company, DanCam Media. From there, John has written under the banners of Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Fan Nation and a handful of local and national magazines while hosting daily sports talk radio shows in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and statewide. John has also spoken on Capitol Hill in Oklahoma City in a successful effort to put more certified athletic trainers in Oklahoma public high schools. Among the dozens of awards he has won, John most cherishes his national "Beat Writer of the Year" from the Associated Press Sports Editors, Oklahoma's "Best Sports Column" from the Society of Professional Journalists, and Two "Excellence in Sports Medicine Reporting" Awards from the National Athletic Trainers Association. John holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from East Central University in Ada, OK. Born and raised in North Pole, Alaska, John played football and wrote for the school paper at Ada High School in Ada, OK. He enjoys books, movies and travel, and lives in Broken Arrow, OK, with his wife and two kids.