LeSean McCoy’s Accuser Speaks; the NFL Remains Silent. Here’s Where Things Stand

Delicia Cordon, LeSean McCoy’s former girlfriend and the victim of a home invasion and assault in July, held a press conference in which she and her lawyer reiterated their allegation that McCoy was linked to the attack. She has not heard anything from the league, and the NFL has not said whether McCoy, who has denied having anything to do with the incident, is the subject of an investigation

Jenny Vrentas/The MMQB

LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. — On Friday morning, in a suburb northeast of Atlanta, Delicia Cordon spoke publicly for the first time about the violent home invasion that she believes her former boyfriend, Bills running back LeSean McCoy, helped set up, to force her from the home they once shared and to collect items of jewelry he’d given to her during their two-year relationship.

Cordon was flanked by her lawyers at the office of a private investigator she has hired to help determine who broke into the five-bedroom home on Hickory Pass in Milton, Ga., where she lived with her two children. Shortly after 3 a.m. on July 10, she says, the intruder entered the house without any sign of forced entry; struck her and Elizabeth Donald, a longtime friend who was staying with her, with a handgun; and demanded specific items of jewelry that McCoy had gifted Cordon for her birthday two years earlier. At one point, she says, the intruder used wirecutters to cut a bracelet off her wrist.

McCoy was training in Miami at the time of the attack and has strongly denied allegations that he was involved. Cordon and her lawyers did not present any direct evidence linking McCoy to the attack, nor was it clear if their private investigation has turned up any such information. But they made it evident they believe he was involved and expressed frustration at the pace of the police investigation, McCoy’s lack of cooperation in the investigation, and the fact that the NFL has not reached out to Cordon about what happened that night.

“To be clear, very clear, I believe that LeSean McCoy was involved in the attack,” said Cordon, who gave an opening statement at a small press conference but did not take any questions. “The LeSean McCoy that I know behind closed doors is totally different than the LeSean McCoy in front of cameras.”

McCoy is playing in his 10th NFL season and fourth with the Bills. The NFL’s current personal conduct policy, passed in 2014, stipulates that as the league becomes aware of conduct that may violate the policy, it will undertake an investigation conducted by the NFL Special Counsel for Investigations and Conduct. The post-Ray Rice changes to the policy were intended to make the NFL’s investigations independent of what happens with law enforcement. (An NFL spokesperson did not reply to queries about whether or not the league has started an investigation into the incident in Milton.)

Potential Legal Ramifications of the Disturbing Accusations Against LeSean McCoy

Though local police are still investigating, and no direct evidence linking McCoy to the invasion has surfaced, the seriousness of the allegations should warrant the NFL looking into what happened. In addition, allegations have been made about other behavior that would violate the personal conduct policy:

• Cordon and Stephanie Maisonet, the mother of McCoy’s 6-year-old son, have alleged that McCoy has physically abused the boy. Maisonet filed an affidavit this week in support of Cordon’s civil suit against McCoy, in which she stated that her son would often come home with bruises after visiting McCoy and that she made a report about McCoy abusing their son to child services, before the home invasion. In the affadavit she included a picture of their son with a bruised chin. (The existence of the child services report could not immediately be verified.)

• Cordon’s lead attorney, Tanya Mitchell Graham, also said other women have contacted Cordon and Maisonet and told them that McCoy has been aggressive toward them, including direct violence by him, violence by someone he has sent, taking gifts back, or sending private investigators to follow them. “There are other women who have indicated very seriously this has gone on with them, and we are hoping they gain the strength to come forward,” Graham said. “If there is a pattern of this type of behavior I absolutely think the NFL should conduct an investigation.” McCoy has not been charged with any crimes during his time in the NFL, and a records request with the police department in the city where he currently lives, Buffalo, yielded no documents in which he was name).

• Robin Martinelli, the private investigator hired by Cordon, referenced a 600-page document from a custody battle in Pennsylvania that contains information she says also speaks to a pattern of behavior; this could not be immediately obtained or verified.

McCoy’s defense attorney, Don Samuel, and his agent, Drew Rosenhaus, could not immediately be reached for comment regarding these new allegations. A Bills spokesperson said the team had no further comment at this point. Speaking to reporters in Buffalo earlier this week, McCoy again denied any involvement in the home invasion and said the allegations that he abused his son were “ridiculous.” “Anyone who knows me or sees me around with my boy, they know the type of relationship we have,” McCoy said.

Milton Police confirmed in a statement later on Friday that McCoy has “not been cooperative” in the investigation despite their requests to his attorneys; they added that they have hit obstacles from all involved and noted “multiple material inconsistencies” from those who have participated and given statements. A friend of Cordon’s wrote on Instagram that the police are still trying to subpoena phone records as part of their ongoing investigation. Another potential source of evidence is the surveillance cameras at the home on Hickory Pass. The crux of Cordon’s civil suit is that McCoy and Tamarcus Porter, his friend and former Pitt teammate, are liable for the personal injury damages she suffered in the attack because, the suit says, the two replaced the security system at the home and prevented Cordon from accessing it, which “effectively left her and her minor children defenseless in their own home.” The suit further alleges that McCoy and Porter had “actual and constructive knowledge of criminal activity existing on the property” on July 10 since Porter previously admitted to police that he had access to a live video feed from inside the home.

With Jameis Winston Settlement, NFL Undermines Its Own Policy. Again.

“LeSean said he was going to deal with this after his season. I don’t have that option; I have to deal with this every day,” said Cordon, who added that she experiences panic attacks and sleeps with her young daughter in her bed since the attack. “He’s not helping; he’s not giving up any information with the security cameras that we have asked. He simply is just … I don’t know. I don’t know what he is doing.”

Cordon and McCoy began dating in June 2016, and later that year she and her two children moved into the house in Milton that he purchased for her. But police records indicate their relationship turned turbulent; before the home invasion, police were called to their Hickory Pass address on three occasions, though none of the incidents were reported to include physical violence. (On Friday, when a reporter asked if McCoy was ever physically violent with Cordon, Graham said she didn't know if her client wanted to answer that.) At the time of the home invasion, McCoy was working to evict Cordon through a court proceeding. Cordon said she had already found a new place to live but would not be able to move there until July 15; she is now living in the new residence.

Cordon returned from an out-of-town trip on July 9, hours before the home invasion. At the Friday press conference, Graham implied that McCoy was monitoring Cordon’s whereabouts that night through her friends’ Snapchat accounts, which he had not previously engaged with. In her affidavit for the civil case, Maisonet said she was with McCoy and Porter in Miami on July 9 to obtain a passport for her son and overheard McCoy saying over the phone, “I need to get this bitch out of my house.” Later that day, Maisonet alleges, he said he would not be able to pick up their son, the first time he had rescheduled his parenting time. The next day, July 10, Maisonet said McCoy contacted her directly for the first time in years (he usually uses Porter as a go-between). Per her affidavit, he “proffered that if I help him with this home invasion [issue],” he’d concede on the schooling choice for their son in their custody case. “If he did not have any involvement in the home invasion,” the affidavit reads, “there is no need to make such an extreme offer.” Maisonet said that McCoy’s mother, Daphne, contacted her to ask her to be a character witness for McCoy; Maisonet added that she gave Porter her Instagram password, which he used to write a comment from her account, stating that the allegations were false and that Cordon was trying to ruin McCoy.

“In this world with social media,” McCoy told reporters in Buffalo this week, per the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, “you can say what you want and the cameras, they take it and run with it. I can’t control that. The only thing I can control is being a great dad. That’s all I can do. These people have so much to gain by doing this. I’m not going to spend too much time even talking about it. It’s crazy, it’s ridiculous. Everything I do is for my little man, my son. If I didn’t care, I wouldn’t be fighting for custody.”

At her press conference, Cordon offered $40,000 for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of the person who broke into her home and assaulted her. She told a 911 operator that night that her face was “demolished,” and in that same call, Cordon said she believed the invasion had something to do with her boyfriend; that he had set her up. “I won’t say exactly what [the intruder] said, because I don’t want to compromise the investigation,” Graham said, “but he did indicate that he knew Mr. McCoy during the attack.” In a statement issued on July 10, Milton PD said its preliminary investigation indicated the residence was “specifically targeted” and “not a random incident.”

Graham said that hours before the attack, according to information Cordon’s team had gathered, a white car was spotted cruising around the cul de sac where Cordon and McCoy once lived together. That same car, Graham said, was in the driveway when the attack occurred. The intruder left through the front of the house, hopped into the car, and he and the man in the driver’s seat drove off.

The key question right now is, who was in that car? But plenty of other questions are swirling—ones that the NFL should be asking.

Question or comment? Email us at talkback@themmqb.com.