Florida State University quarterback De’Andre Johnson spoke Tuesday morning with ABC News regarding his arrest and the subsequent release of a video showing him punching a woman in the face, saying he should have walked away, and that his mother taught him better and he let her down.
Johnson has been indefinitely suspended by coach Jimbo Fisher following the altercation, but doesn’t blame the university for the decision. He does believe though that he deserves a second chance.
“What you saw in the video is not who I am,” said Johnson to ABC’s Michael Strahan.
While Johnson expressed remorse to the victim, he is still pleading not guilty to misdemeanor battery.
“There are people who make mistakes, but don’t deserve to pay for the rest of their life for them,” said Jose Baez, Casey Anthony’s former attorney and who is now representing Johnson.
Johnson said it didn’t matter whether the woman said a racial slur to provoke the punch, as his lawyer alleges and was previously reported, he regrets not just walking away. (RELATED: Former FSU Quarterback Says He Punched Woman Because She Called Him A N****r)
“She didn’t raise me this way, it kills me inside, to know that I hurt her heart,” said Johnson regarding his mother, who he believes he let down the most.
She told Strahan that she cried for three days following his arrest, and when talking to him for the first time after it she wanted to, “to jump through the phone and wring his neck.”
According to the arrest affidavit, the victim suffered bruising under her left eye, a small cut, and swelling to the left check and upper lip.
Johnson, 19, says he’s now volunteering at a battered women’s shelter.
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