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NFL player Merriman accused of choking reality TV star
2009-09-07
SAN DIEGO (AFP) - National Football League player Shawne Merriman was arrested Sunday after his girlfriend, American reality television star Tila Nguyen, accused him of assault. Police said they received a call from a distraught woman in the early hours Sunday who claimed she had been choked and restrained by a man when she tried to leave a San Diego area home. "She said she was in the home and tried to leave and Merriman stopped her, threw her to the ground and choked her," San Diego police spokeswoman Jan Caldwell said. Merriman was arrested for battery and false imprisonment before being jailed briefly and then released. The San Diego Chargers player has not been charged. The 27-year-old Singapore-born Nguyen was the star of the MTV reality show A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila, which is a name she also used on a number of pornographic Web sites. She has appeared modelled nude in Playboy and Penthouse. Nguyen, who is under five feet tall, was treated and released from hospital. "From what I understand, she was not seriously hurt. She was able to talk, able to walk," Caldwell said. Nguyen's parents left Vietnam for Singapore after the Vietnam war then emigrated to the Houston, Texas when she was a year old. Merriman missed nearly all of last season with a knee injury. He played sparingly during the exhibition season, which ended Friday, and had four tackles and no sacks. Merriman was slapped with a four-game suspension in 2006 after testing positive for steroids. He was the 12th overall pick in the 2005 NFL entry draft and was selected to the league's all-star team three times.
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