Former Arizona Cardinals executive Terry McDonough has been accused of choking his neighbor, according to Mecklenburg County (N.C.) court documents.
Per a criminal affidavit, a neighbor alleged that on March 12 McDonough assaulted him by chest bumping him and putting his hands around the neighbor’s neck trying to strangle him because McDonough was upset over tractor equipment damaging his grass. McDonough allegedly verbally assaulted the neighbor and two landscape workers, according to the affidavit that the neighbor filed.
“This person has a history of volatile behavior and also (was) publicized in national news related to a case he has with the Arizona Cardinals,” the man said in the affidavit. “He tried to strangle me unprovoked and both me and my family do not feel safe.”
McDonough has a court date set for April 11 to answer simple assault charges, according to court documents.
Michael Caspino, McDonough’s lawyer, called the neighbor’s accusation “a joke” in a statement to The Athletic. Caspino said the neighbor “ran a tractor across Terry’s lawn tearing it up and Terry yelled at him and didn’t touch him.”
Last April, McDonough filed an arbitration demand with the NFL accusing Cardinals owner Michael Bidwill of demoting him in 2019 after McDonough objected to a scheme circumventing the suspension of then-general manager Steve Keim.
According to the arbitration demand, McDonough was provided a “burner phone” to communicate with Keim while the GM was banned from contact with the team during a five-week DUI suspension in 2018. McDonough’s complaint claimed he suffered “illegal and retaliatory mistreatment and abuse” from Bidwill after McDonough voiced objection to the burner phone scheme, which violated rules set forth for Keim’s suspension.
“Claims (McDonough) has made in an arbitration filing are wildly false, reckless, and an opportunistic ploy for financial gain,” Jim McCarthy, an external public relations adviser to the Cardinals, said in a statement after the arbitration demand was filed.
McDonough no longer works for the Cardinals after being employed by the team from 2013 to 2023.
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