Former Bengals DE charged with assaulting wife and sister

[Who Dey]

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Longtime Bengals defensive end Jonathan Fanene has been charged with eight felony county and five misdemeanors in American Samoa, on charges of assaulting his wife and sister after he was accused of an affair.

Fanene also lost his job as director of the American Samoa Department of Youth and Women’s Affairs as a result of the charges.

According to the Associated Press, court documents allege that Fanene was involved in an altercation with the women after he was accused of having an affair during a trip to Hawaii. The incident happened on May 26, and was witnessed by their 9-year-old son.

The boy told police his father told him to grab “the bat,” and when he couldn’t find one he brought him a pipe, a golf club, and a broom handle. Fanene then used the objects to assault his wife, along with an electrical extension cord which he used to whip the women.

“He beat them as hard as he can. … My mom told him to stop, in a crying way,” the son told a police investigator, according to the affidavit.

Police said his wife suffered multiple contusions from her shoulders to her ankles.

His wife filed a complaint against him on May 29, telling police that her sister-in-law told her Fanene was seen in Hawaii with another woman. When his wife informed him of the allegations from his sister, he “flew into a rage and proceed to assault his sister with his hands.”

“At one point during the course of the physical onslaught, she got up on the couch to distance herself from him, but he assaulted her with the pipe,” the affidavit says. The affidavit adds that the wife was finally able to grab and remove the pipe and stick from her husband, but “he grabbed a commercial grade extension cord, wound it around his hand, and proceed to whip her and her sister-in-law with it.”

Fanene has been released on $100,000 bail, and has a court appearance next week. His defense lawyer declined comment to the AP.

A seventh-round pick from Utah in 2005, Fanene played seven seasons for the Bengals. He went to camp with the Patriots in 2012, but was released before the start of the season.