Domestic Violence Charges Dismissed Against Ray Rice
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (WJZ) -- A judge in New Jersey formally dismisses domestic violence charges against former Ravens running back Ray Rice. The decision officially ends Rice's interaction with the criminal justice system.
Derek Valcourt with more on how it happened and what's next for Rice.
This was all part of the plea deal Rice struck with a judge shortly after his arrest. This chapter is over, and the question now is whether his football career is over as well.
What happened on an Atlantic City casino elevator took Ray Rice from Ravens football fan favorite to domestic violence disgrace.
Shortly after his February 2014 arrest for knocking out his now-wife Janay inside that elevator, a New Jersey judge agreed to allow Rice into a special one year pretrial intervention program that allowed the first time offender to avoid a third-degree aggravated assault charge.
Rice completed mandatory counseling, and this week, finished a full year of supervision required by the pretrial program. Accordingly, his charges were dropped Thursday.
Rice has issued several public apologies.
"I let so many people down because of 30 seconds of my life that I know I can't take back," Rice said in July, 2014.
But some argue Rice got off easy. Disturbing video of the actual assault surfaced only after Rice went to court.
That's when the Ravens booted him from the team and the NFL commissioner decided his earlier punishment of a two game suspension wasn't enough and indefinitely suspended Rice from the league.
"I got it wrong in the handling of the Ray Rice matter," said NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell in September, 2014.
Rice later field a wrongful termination grievance, arguing the indefinite suspension amounted to double jeopardy. He won in arbitration and was reinstated to the league.
So far, no team has taken the free agent.
"I think America still remembers that video from the Atlantic City incident--I think that's number one. He didn't have a lot of success the last full season that he played," said Rob Long, 105.7 The Fan. "Running backs age faster than everybody else in the NFL, so I think those two things combined is kind of hurting a guy who I saw earlier this week. He looks to be in pretty good shape."
The dismissal of charges now wipes away any criminal record for Rice, who has since moved with his family back to his home state of New York.
Rice told our media partner, The Baltimore Sun, in February that he is still hopeful he will get to return to the NFL.