ENCINITAS, Calif. — Former NFL tight end and Scripps Ranch High School alum Kellen Winslow II was arrested on a series of sex crime charges on Thursday, one week after his arrest in Encinitas on suspicion of residential burglary.
The San Diego County Sheriff’s Department announced Winslow would be charged with kidnapping with intent to commit rape, forcible rape, forcible sodomy, forcible oral copulation, indecent exposure and residential burglary.
Winslow had been scheduled for an arraignment Thursday afternoon, but the procedure was postponed. A short time later, the DA’s office announced that a warrant had been issued for Winslow earlier that morning, and that he was taken into custody by Sheriff’s deputies by afternoon. The DA’s release stated the former player would be arraigned Friday in Vista.
FOX 5 has reached out to the San Diego County Sheriff’s office and the District Attorney’s office for more information.
Winslow is the son of former Chargers great and Pro Football Hall of Famer Kellen Winslow.
Shortly before 3 p.m. on June 7, deputies responded to a report of a possible residential burglary at the Park Encinitas Mobile Home Park in the 400 block of N. El Camino Real, according to the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department. The caller, who said a man had walked into a neighbor’s home, confronted him because he did not recognize him as the resident. The man then got into a black SUV and drove away.
Deputies checked the area and found the matching vehicle nearby. They positively identified the driver as the person who had been in the home. The driver, later identified as Kellen Winslow II, 34, was placed under arrest on suspicion of residential burglary and booked into the Vista Detention Facility.
Winslow posted bail Friday morning. His attorney, Harvey A. Steinberg, released a statement later that afternoon saying that the former player “emphatically denies committing any burglary.”
He would have no need to “steal anything from anyone at a trailer park,” Steinberg continued. “He looks forward to being vindicated once this matter is fully investigated.”
FOX 5 also spoke with Winslow’s representative, Denise White with EAG Sports Management. White said Winslow was at the mobile home park looking for a home for his mother-in-law. She said he never went inside the home or took anything, and that Winslow is friends with the homeowners and attends church with them.
Winslow was drafted by the Cleveland Browns with the sixth pick in the 2004 NFL Draft and played 10 seasons for five teams, including the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Seattle Seahawks, New England Patriots and New York Jets. He concluded his playing career in 2013.
We will update this developing story as we learn more.