Falcons Release Barkevious Mingo After Child Sex Offense Allegation

Two days after being arrested and charged for indecency with a child—sexual contact, Barkevious Mingo has been released by the Falcons, the team announced Saturday night.

Mingo, 30, turned himself in “on his own accord in consultation with his attorney” and was released from custody after posting a $25,000 bond. The charges stem from an alleged incident that took place over the July 4th weekend of 2019 and was brought to the attention of the Arlington PD in January 2021, according to Sports Illustrated's Jon Wertheim.

SI obtained documents filed by Arlington PD pertaining to a search warrant that detail Mingo's alleged assault of a teenage boy who was a friend of Mingo's teenage family member. The documents describe Mingo taking both boys to an amusement park and go-kart complex, then out to dinner. He also allegedly took the boys on a shopping spree. Mingo and the boys returned to a local hotel where Mingo was staying.

According to the document, “The victim was then woken by [Mingo] pulling at his underwear. This occurred for a few minutes until the suspect got more and aggressive and pulled the victim’s underwear down to his shins. The victim advised that when this was occurring, he was scared and pretended to be asleep. [Mingo] put a lotion on that made the victim’s skin burn and … rubbed his penis up and down, in between the victim’s butt crack.”

Mingo was a former first-round pick in 2013 and has played for seven teams in nine years. His attorney, Lukas Garcia, refuted the allegations in a statement.

“The allegations out of Tarrant County against my client are completely baseless. Barkevious Mingo is innocent. At this stage, our side has very limited information. What we do know is these allegations are from over two years ago and are completely untrue. Mr. Mingo is the victim of a false claim, and we believe this is motivated by money or some other ulterior motive. We are confident when the truth comes to light, my client will be fully exonerated.”