BALTIMORE — Marcus Fleming Jr., a redshirt sophomore wide receiver on the University of Maryland football team, was charged with misdemeanor second-degree assault after a felony first-degree assault charge was dropped in Prince George’s County Circuit Court on Thursday morning.
According to court documents obtained by The Baltimore Sun, Fleming was charged on June 8 after a June 3 incident with his ex-girlfriend, Ariana Wright, also a student-athlete at the university. According to court documents, she says that he physically abused her at an apartment in Hyattsville. Fleming was arrested June 25 and released the same day after posting a $3,000 bond.
According to court documents, Fleming has also filed second-degree assault charges against Wright.
According to court documents, Wright accused Fleming of banging her head against the bathroom door and choking her with his sweatshirt after she broke up with him for being unfaithful. According to court documents, Wright says that Fleming pulled her hair, caused her nose to bleed and slapped her on the cheek. When she tried calling her sister, she said that Fleming took her phone and disabled it, according to court documents.
According to court documents, Wright says that he forced her to clean up the blood on the floor before she called an Uber.
Wright filed a protective order against Fleming on June 17, according to court records. In the protective order documents, she accused him of bruising her arm during an argument on May 17.
No date has been set for Fleming’s trial for the second-degree misdemeanor charge. He is currently away from the football team and has not been participating in team activities, said a team spokesperson, who added that the team will await official notice from the court before commenting. The Terps begin their season against Buffalo on Sept. 3.
Fleming filed second-degree assault charges against Wright on June 29, according to court documents. A deputy served her with the criminal charges on Aug. 16, and her court date is scheduled for October.
Fleming wrote in court documents that his ex-girlfriend was “crazy” and “dangerous.” Fleming wrote that on June 3, as he was helping a friend move in, Wright kept calling and texting him, telling him to come home, according to court documents. Fleming said that when he returned to his apartment, Wright asked why he was talking to other women on his iPad before yelling then hitting him and causing his lip to bleed, according to court records. Fleming wrote that he tried to calm Wright down, but she continued to attack him, the court documents say.
According to court documents, Fleming described a previous incident in which Wright threw a glass candle at him.
Fleming is entering his second year with the Terps after spending the 2020 season at Nebraska. The Miami native appeared in eight games (three starts) and had 197 yards and a touchdown on 18 receptions in 2021. He was a four-star recruit, according to 247Sports.
