Lawyer for Football Player: Text Messages Will Show Victim Doesn't Remember Being Injured

The lawyer for a college football player from Marblehead accused of assaulting his girlfriend says the text messages from the woman show she doesn’t remember being injured - injuries that included a fractured skull, bleeding to the brain, two split lip and swelling and cuts to her face.

John Perry, 21, has been held in jail without bail since his arrest over the weekend. He was scheduled to return to Springfield District Court on Thursday for a dangerousness hearing.

Perry was a linebacker and running back for the Magicians and is now a junior linebacker at Western New England University in Springfield. He was arraigned Monday on charges of aggravated assault and battery. Prosecutors described it as a “bloody, violent scene that left one young woman with serious injuries.”

Ed Principe, a Saugus-based defense attorney who is a retired State Police trooper and spokesman, told the Boston Herald that Perry “vehemently disputes the charges” and only one side of the case has been publicly presented so far.

Principe said Perry’s girlfriend has sent text messages to friends saying she doesn’t remember how she sustained the injuries, the Herald reported. In court Monday, and again in an interview with the Herald, Principe stressed that Perry has no criminal history.