Saints pass rusher Junior Galette has been released from jail following his arrest in connection to an altercation at his home in Kenner, according to police.
Junior Galette’s mug shot
Officers were holding Galette, 26, on one count of misdemeanor simple battery related to domestic violence, and his bail had been set at $600. He managed to avoid news media who were waiting for him to exit Kenner’s jail via its main entrance and see if he wanted to make any statements, apparently using a side way out about 4 p.m. Monday.
Lionel “Lon” Burns, a defense lawyer who advised Galette on Monday at the request of the player’s friends and family, said Galette’s focus was now “working to clear his good name, which he has established on and off the football field.”
A second man arrested in the incident, 27-year-old Terrance Banks, walked out of Kenner’s jail about 5 p.m. Monday. He declined to be interviewed as he climbed into a car being driven by another man.
Officers responded to a disturbance at Galette’s home in the 4400 block of Rue De La Harbor at 8:52 a.m. Monday, Kenner Police Lt. Brian McGregor said. Officers met with a 22-year-old woman who told the officers that Galette and his cousin — Banks — “jumped” her.
Police said the woman claimed to have been in a relationship with Galette in the past and previously lived with him at a home in New Orleans. Though they were no longer together in a relationship, she still “stayed” with, cooked for and cleaned for Galette, and she did whatever he needed her to do, she said, McGregor remarked.
Galette — who bought a home outside of New Orleans in the Jefferson Parish municipality of Kenner in September — claimed she was a dancer who went to his house on Sunday night and stayed until Monday morning with him and Banks, police said.
In the morning, the woman said, she woke Galette up and asked for cab money. Galette instructed her to instead ask Banks, of Newark, New Jersey, who was a teammate of Galette’s and a defensive tackle on Temple University’s football team before Galette made the Saints as an undrafted rookie out of small school Stillman College in 2010.
The woman said Galette and Banks then refused to give her any money and told her to leave the house. An argument broke out, and Galette is accused of pushing the woman twice trying to get her out.
The woman said she fell. Both Galette and Banks got on her, she couldn’t breathe and she couldn’t fight them off, she said, according to police.
Then Banks picked her up and put her out the house, she said. She said she started dialing 911, but Banks took her phone and wouldn’t return it.
The woman said she grabbed a knife because she feared she’d be “jumped” again. Galette then began recording the incident with a phone, she said, according to police.
Police on Monday were working to obtain that recording Galette supposedly made.
The woman subsequently put the knife down, and Banks picked her up and took her outside, she said.
She then used her phone — which she had gotten back at that point — to call 911. She had scratches on the right side of her face, and her right earring had been pulled out from her ear, which was bloody, police said. She opted to seek medical treatment on her own instead of from first responders, police said.
When police informed Galette they were arresting him, he called at least one officer an insulting name, McGregor said. He also mentioned to an officer arresting him that being booked with domestic violence could negatively impact his contract with the Saints, but he otherwise cooperated, McGregor said after the news conference.
Under a personal conduct policy the NFL adopted in December, it’s possible Galette could be suspended six games in 2015, though Monday was a very early stage in the matter.
In his fifth year with the Saints, Galette led New Orleans’ defense in quarterback sacks (10). He had 12 sacks last year as New Orleans got to the divisional round of the playoffs and became the first Saints player in a decade to register double digits in that category in consecutive seasons. Despite that, this season, the Saints gave up the second-most yards in the NFL, finished 7-9 and missed the playoffs.
The Saints in early September gave Galette a four-year, $41.5 million deal that would extend his contract through 2019.