Former 49er Dana Stubblefield: 'I'm completely innocent'

SANTA CLARA COUNTY, Calif. (BCN) - Former San Francisco 49ers and Oakland Raiders football player Dana Stubblefield Tuesday denied allegations that he raped a developmentally disabled woman last year in Morgan Hill and said he had consensual sex with her.

Stubblefield, 45, said he was innocent of five felony charges issued Monday by the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office for sexually assaulting a then-31-year-old woman at his Morgan Hill home on April 9, 2015, when she was interviewed for a babysitter job.

The woman reported the alleged rape to police following the incident, prosecutors said.

"I am not a perfect man. However, the allegations against me come a year after a consensual encounter with another woman," Stubblefield said during a news conference at his San Jose church this morning alongside his attorneys and defense team.

"One of my primary charities is Special Olympics, something that's true and dear to my heart. This is why these allegations hurt me so bad," he said.

Stubblefield was arrested on Monday in front of his children at their school and his bail was set at $250,000, but if given the opportunity he would've turned himself in, his defense attorney Gary Winuk said. Stubblefield later posted bail and was released.

The alleged victim in the case targeted Stubblefield based on his celebrity status and wealth, according to Winuk.

"From our perspective, the district attorney's office had one motivation and that was to arrest someone of notoriety," Winuk said.

The woman has pleaded guilty recently to charges of assault, resisting arrest and failing to appear in court on a hit-and-run incident in the county, Winuk said.

Defense attorney Ken Rosenfeld said he didn't believe the woman was developmentally disabled because she had filed multiple civil lawsuits, ran a business, owned a driver's license and was able to make online communications on her own.

She also asked Stubblefield for money through 22 text messages over the course of five days after the alleged incident. He gave money to her so she could fix her car, according to Rosenfeld.

The charges against Stubblefield are "politically motivated" and come during an election year in which District Attorney Jeff Rosen wants to become the next state attorney general, Rosenfeld said.

Rosenfeld also said it was "ridiculous" that the district attorney's office allowed Stubblefield to walk around for a year after the alleged incident if prosecutors believed he was "dangerous."

The former football player has been cooperative with prosecutors since his attorneys were made aware of the pending charges against him earlier this year.

Stubblefield's defense team also provided reporters with copies of a March 5 lie detector test he took through an independent investigator, along with the woman's text message records to him, her babysitter profile and posts from her Facebook profile.

Stubblefield contacted the woman through the website Sittercity.com and arranged to meet at his home for an interview that lasted 20 minutes, according to a statement of facts written by Morgan Hill police Detective Sheena Pevehouse and filed in the case.

The woman left but soon returned to the residence, where Stubblefield allegedly raped her in a room, Pevehouse said.

The woman then went to Morgan Hill police to report the alleged sexual assault and turned in $80 that Stubblefield had given to her, according to Pevehouse.

Evidence taken from the woman was tested at the county's crime lab and the DNA was a match for Stubblefield, Pevehouse said.

He was a defensive lineman who won a Super Bowl in 1995 with the 49ers. He played for the 49ers from 1993 to 1997 and ended his career in 2003 with the Raiders.

He was also named the NFL Defensive Player of the Year by the Associated Press in 1997.

Stubblefield is scheduled for arraignment on the charges on June 3 at the South County Courthouse in Morgan Hill.