Crime

Dolphins' Phillip Merling No Longer Faces Charges for Allegedly Hitting his Pregnant Girlfriend

If the Dolphins' Phillip Merling did violently assault his pregnant fiancée it seems he won't be facing any formal consequences for it. The Broward State Attorney's office has announced that they're dropping all charges after the victim in the case refused to continue cooperating. The Dolphins meanwhile never punished Merling. Even following his arrest...

By Kyle Munzenrieder

November 17, 2010

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If the Dolphins' Phillip Merling did violently assault his pregnant fiancée it seems he won't be facing any formal consequences for it. The Broward State Attorney's office has announced that they're dropping all charges after the victim in the case refused to continue cooperating. The Dolphins meanwhile never punished Merling. Even following his arrest he was given special treatment from the police.

Merling was arrested back in May for hitting his pregnant girlfriend and mother of his child. At the time she was pregnant with his second child. Reports state that 6'4, 295 lb Merling left the victim with a a lacerated lip and a swollen face after the attack.

The woman claimed on a 911 call that she had been hit several times, and that Merling had hit her at least once before.

Merling continued to practice with the Dolphins following his arrest, but was sidelined for the entire season after tearing his Achilles' tendon.

The Broward State Attorney's office claim that they are unable to get the victim to cooperate with the case. Shortly after the incident she left Florida and returned to South Carolina to her parents home.

"We had an altercation in the house,'' Merling himself tells The Herald. "It wasn't physical. It was hardly even verbal. It was something I did. I broke her trust and I came home and I had to look her in the eyes and admit what I did. I broke her trust and I just hope to rebuild it."

He claims the two are still in a relationship, but are not currently living together .

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