Sutton turns himself in on domestic violence charge
More than three weeks after an alleged domestic violence incident, and 11 days after the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office announced a warrant for his arrest, former Detroit Lions cornerback Cam Sutton turned himself in Sunday evening, according to the department.
Sutton, 29, appeared in Hillsborough County Circuit Court in Tampa early Monday and was charged with misdemeanor domestic battery, said Erin Maloney, communications director for the Office of the State Attorney for the 13th Judicial Circuit. Sutton was “released on his own recognizance,” Maloney said in an email to The Detroit News.
If convicted, Sutton faces up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine, according to Florida law. Maloney could not provide Sutton’s next court date.
Sutton was initially accused of domestic battery by strangulation, a felony punishable by up to five years in prison.
Sutton’s attorneys, Todd Foster of Todd Foster Law Group and Jason Setchen of Athlete Defender, issued a news release Monday, describing the misdemeanor incident as a “family matter,” but did not release details of the alleged incident.
“Both Mr. Sutton and the mother of his children request privacy in this matter, as they view this as a family matter and wish to resolve it as a family,” Foster and Setchen said.
Foster and Setchen could not immediately be reached Monday for comment.
On Sunday, the Sheriff’s
Office issued a press release, along with a short video of Sutton in handcuffs.
“After weeks of evading law enforcement, this man has finally made the right choice to turn himself in,” Sheriff Chad Chronister said in a statement. “Domestic violence has no place in our community, and no one is above the law here in Hillsborough County. My thoughts are with this woman as she continues to heal from this man’s gruesome actions.”
According to the release, Sutton’s attorney contacted the department Monday to inform them of Sutton’s intention to turn himself in. That same day, at the NFL annual meetings in Orlando,
Lions team president Rod Wood shared Sutton had been at the team’s facility in Allen Park when news of the warrant initially was shared by the Sheriff’s Office.
“He was actually in our building (when the news broke),” team president Rod Wood said in an interview with Fox 2 on Monday. “We found him. He was down with our strength staff. He just kind of showed up, unexpectedly, to work out. We were able to talk to him in person — not me, but other members of the staff — and he left the building.”
Wood said Sutton was encouraged by the team to “do the right thing” and obtain legal counsel and turn himself
in.
Sutton is accused of domestic battery by strangulation, a felony punishable by up to five years in prison. Police were summoned during the early morning hours on March 7, but Sutton had fled before they arrived. He had been in Michigan for a team function earlier that day and returned to the state shortly after the incident.
The Lions waited a day after the warrant was issued before releasing Sutton, who had signed with the team as a free agent the previous offseason. The team released him with cause, starting a process that could potentially negate his $10.5 million guaranteed
salary for 2024.
“First of all, I want to make sure everybody knows, we didn’t release him because of anything related to the cap or money that we may owe him,” Wood said. “It was the right thing to do for the organization,” Wood said.
“We did release him with a post-June 1 designation, which will allow us to deal with whatever the cap implications are over two seasons versus one.
“And we’re going to let the process between us, him and the union play out to determine exactly what happens.
“But money was not on my mind when we made our decisions.”