Former NFL player Kellen Winslow II arrested on suspicion of rape, other sex crimes

Reporting from San Diego —  Former NFL player Kellen Winslow II was arrested this week on suspicion of multiple sex crimes, including two counts of forcible rape, according to the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department.

Winslow, 34, was arrested Thursday morning by sheriff’s deputies serving a search warrant. His house was also searched.

Winslow, the son of Chargers Hall of Famer Kellen Winslow, is due to be arraigned in a Vista courtroom on Friday.

The charges he is facing include two counts of forcible rape, one count of forcible sodomy and one count of forcible oral copulation, the sheriff’s department said. Other charges he faces include kidnapping with the intent to commit rape, residential burglary and indecent exposure, according to the sheriff’s department.

No details of the incidents were immediately available, including when the alleged crimes occurred.

Winslow was arrested a week after he was briefly jailed on suspicion of burglary. His new arrest came on the same day he was to appear in a Vista courtroom for arraignment in the burglary case.

Brian Watkins, the attorney who said he was representing Winslow in the burglary case, declined comment when reached by phone late Thursday afternoon.

Winslow was initially taken into custody June 7 after deputies responded to reports of a possible burglary in the Park Encinitas Mobile Home Park on El Camino Real near La Entrada.

Around 2:40 p.m. that day, a resident reported seeing a stranger walk into a neighboring residence. The neighbor confronted the intruder, who subsequently got into a black SUV and left, sheriff’s officials said.

Deputies stopped Winslow, who was then booked into custody on one count of burglary. He soon posted $50,000 bond and was released from the Vista jail.

His publicist said the arrest was the result of an over-reaction from a neighbor who saw him at the residence of a couple that was not home.

The day after the arrest last week, the publicist supplied a statement from another of Winslow’s defense attorneys, Colorado-based Harvey A. Steinberg, who said Winslow “emphatically denies committing any burglary.”

“He would have no need to burglarize or steal anything from anyone at a trailer park,” Steinberg said, adding that Winslow “looks forward to being vindicated” in court.

Winslow grew up in San Diego and attended Patrick Henry and Scripps Ranch high schools before attending the University of Miami. The sixth draft pick in 2004, he played in the NFL for 10 seasons, until 2013.

Figueroa is a writer for the San Diego Union-Tribune.

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