Chad Johnson Has A History Of Domestic Violence

Chad Johnson was notably arrested over the weekend for allegedly head butting his wife and consequently was released by the Miami Dolphins on Sunday. And while Chad “Ochocinco” Johnson has a history of being a troublemaker, it was always in a playful, excessive touchdown celebration sort of way… not a Michael Vick or Pacman Jones kind of way.

However according to noted celeb gossip site TMZ, this isn’t his first brush with domestic violence charges. According to TMZ Chad Johnson was charged and plead guilty to a domestic charge 12 years ago before his NFL career began.

"“According to court records obtained by TMZ, Johnson was arrested for misdemeanor domestic battery in L.A. on February 7, 2000 … just before he began playing football for Oregon State University."

Supposedly in this situation TMZ says sources claim Johnson slapped his girlfriend at the time after accusing her of cheating on him. This is the center of this incident as well as a condom receipt brought up questions of infidelity leading to the argument that resulted in the assault.

Johnson plead no contest and was sentenced to 45 days in a LA jail and 3 years of probation but Chad dodged jail time by doing 30 days of graffiti removal with CalTrans. He also had to participate in a 12 month batterers program and stay away from the victim. He at first avoided doing his required legal obligations and had an additional 15 days of graffiti removal tacked on before successfully completing the program in 2002.

Profootballtalk pointed out that this isn’t necessarily new information since he references it in his 2006 book “Chad: I Can’t be Stopped.” Interestingly named book since I think 2 women would say that he can’t be stopped.

But this information resurfacing may impact his future in the NFL with other teams and quite possibly the impending case around the new allegations.