Local sexual assault allegations made against Antonio Brown, a former Pittsburgh Steeler, likely will not be prosecuted, a spokesman for District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. said Wednesday.
“Our office, along with the Allegheny County Police Department, made contact with counsel for the plaintiff in the federal lawsuit involving Antonio Brown,” Zappala’s spokesman Mike Manko wrote in an email to the Tribune-Review. “It appears there is a statute of limitations issue in moving forward with any inquiry involving the Allegheny County allegation mentioned in the lawsuit.”
He would not elaborate further. Brown left the Steelers this year and is now a wide receiver for the New England Patriots.
Last week, Zappala said his office would investigate the allegations made against Brown in a federal lawsuit filed by a former personal trainer.
The lawsuit contends Brown in June 2017 exposed himself and kissed Britney Taylor without her consent inside one of Brown’s homes in the Pittsburgh area. Brown owns a home in Pine.
Brown, through his attorney, has denied the allegations.
Police have no record of the incident detailed in the lawsuit.
Northern Regional police Chief Robert Amann has said there were never any criminal reports of sexual assault at Brown’s house in Pine.
Taylor was made “extremely uncomfortable” by what happened inside Brown’s Pine home, according to the lawsuit, and she said she had “no interest in a sexual relationship with Brown.”
“But, because her professional relationship with Brown was important and because she took it seriously, Ms. Taylor willed herself to brush off the episode, hoping that Brown would stop pursuing her,” the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit further alleges that Brown sexually assaulted and raped Taylor later that month and in May 2018. The suit contends those incidents took place in Florida.
