Aaron Hernandez Girlfriend Arraigned on Perjury Charge

The fiancée of former New England Patriot Aaron Hernandez was arraigned in Massachusetts on a perjury charge connected to the murder case against him today.

Shayanna Jenkins pleaded not guilty and is free on bond on personal recognizance. 

The prosecutor requested bail for  be set at $5,000, while the defense called the perjury indictment "overreaching" and asked for no bail to be set.

Jenkins appeared in Fall River Superior Court and the defense said Jenkin's relationship with Hernandez that was "don't ask, don't tell," in which she did not always know where he is.

She was indicted on a single count of perjury in September related to testimony she gave the Bristol County grand jury hearing evidence in the case.

Prosecutors allege that Jenkins destroyed evidence in the case and it was captured, in part, on video.

She also made false statements about trying to obtain nondisclosure statements from people who worked in the Hernandez household, specifically cleaning staff, according to prosecutors.

The state said evidence before the grand jury shows that Jenkins was in the house she and Hernandez shared when she received a call from Hernandez. The number was from a lawyer's office and Hernandez asked her to go to the basement and remove a box that was in a storage room in the basement and get rid of it. 

She secreted a box covered in baby clothes out of the house, according to prosecutors, and left in her sister's car.

Jenkins told authorities that she had gone out for baby formula and said she did not know where she went, prosecutors said. 

Her attorney said she has been fully cooperative and that the indictment, statements from prosecutors and request for $5,000 were overreaching.

Hernandez, a Bristol, Connecticut native, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the death of Odin Lloyd, a 27-year-old semi-pro football player from Boston. Lloyd had been dating Jenkins' sister.

Jenkins and Hernandez lived together in North Attleborough, Massachusetts, near where Lloyd's body was found. They have a young child.

When Jenkins drove Hernandez to the police station in June, she spoke with police and fabricated that Lloyd was a drug dealer, according to prosecutors.

"The only rational reason that she would have had to have said that about a man who, as the court may know was dating her sister, and about who reportedly she had just learned had been killed and his body recovered in North Attleboro was if there was some motive for her to suggest that he had indeed showed some untoward conduct, but that was not true," prosecutors said.

Her defense attorney said Jenkins later corrected that and said that she was aware that Lloyd had provided Hernandez with marijuana, but had no other knowledge than that.

"Their relationship, in many ways, had what I would refer to as 'don't ask, don't tell," and it goes along the lines, frankly. with women who are involved with people who are artists, who are entertainers, who are sports figures. She could spend her life tracking him down and asking where he was every single minute or she could choose to say, 'What you are doing on your own time is your own time. If you didn't do this, you didn't do this. I don't need to know more details,'" the defense attorney said.  

The defense attorney said she was with Jenkins when she appeared before the grand jury, asserted her Fifth Amendment rights and there was "heavy-handed" questioning.

She went on to say there will be a motion to dismiss.

Three others, including Hernandez's cousin, are also facing charges in the case.

Read more about the case here:

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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