Ravens safety Gerome Sapp is firing back at former Ravens player Joe Maese ? filing counter assault charges after Saturday?s altercation at a downtown Baltimore bar.
Sapp, 26, of Owings Mills, filed misdemeanor second-degree assault against Mease, 29, also of Owings Mills, on Tuesday.
Maese filed assault charges against Sapp on Saturday after he said the current Raven attacked him in the stairwell of Angels Rock Bar at Power Plant Live near the Inner Harbor.
“I was walking down the stairwell when Gerome Sapp ran after me and punched me,” Maese wrote in court documents. “He swung a second time and missed as we went to the ground. A bartender, Trent O?Connor, grabbed Gerome and pulled him off of me. Gerome ran back up the stairs laughing.”
Maese went outside and found police officers, who tracked down Sapp and his girlfriend “hiding” in Ruth?s Chris Steak House, Mease wrote in his application for charges. Since the officers did not witness the incident, they told Mease they could not press charges, but he could.
“I worked with Gerome for two weeks in 2004 with the Baltimore Ravens,” Mease wrote in his statement of charges. “I have a cut and lump on my head above [my] right eye. Gerome Sapp was intoxicated during this event.”
A second-degree assault is a misdemeanor punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
In Maryland, anyone can file misdemeanor criminal charges against another person, but prosecutors review the case and decide if it should go forward.
Sapp?s statement was not immediately available. A woman who answered the phone at Sapp?s house declined to comment on the case.
In an earlier interview with The Examiner, Mease said the attack surprised him and he didn?t know what provoked it.
Sapp has been with the team twice during his five-year career and was a sixth-round draft pick in 2003. He was released by the Ravens early during the 2004 season and was reacquired in a trade with the Indianapolis Colts before the 2006 season.
The former Notre Dame standout was placed on injured reserve this past Saturday ? the same day the alleged incident occurred. Sapp had been sidelined for several weeks with a thigh injury.
Maese was the team?s long snapper, but was not re-signed for the 2005 season.
Maese played for the Detroit Lions in 2005 before returning to the area as a member of the American Indoor Football Association?s Baltimore Blackbirds last year.
He played fullback for the now-defunct Blackbirds, but quietly left the Blackbirds in the middle of the season after a disagreement with the team?s management.
Examiner Staff Writer Matt Palmer contributed to this article.
