Parker police on Thursday night arrested Jonathon Cooper at his apartment on multiple charges for violating a protection order, marking the second arrest in the span of a week for the Broncos linebacker following a physical altercation with his girlfriend at Cooper’s apartment last week.
The new charges for the 28-year-old Cooper come on top of second-degree felony and third-degree misdemeanor charges filed in Douglas County District Court stemming from his original June 4 arrest. A forensic exam performed on Cooper’s girlfriend after the altercation indicated she had been strangled, according to an updated affidavit obtained by The Post on Friday.
Hours after practicing with the Broncos in a limited capacity Thursday, police arrested Cooper at 6:17 p.m. and booked him at the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office detention facility later that night on misdemeanor charges of harassment and violation of a protection order, according to records.
“We are disappointed to learn of Jonathon Cooper’s arrest on Thursday and continue to review this matter,” the Broncos said in a statement provided to The Post.
Cooper appeared in Douglas County court Friday morning, where Judge Mark Solomon issued a personal recognizance bond of $5,000 for Cooper, after arguments between Cooper’s lawyer Harvey Steinberg and Cooper’s former girlfriend’s lawyer Ronald Gainor about whether Cooper violated a protection order filed earlier in the week.
Solomon ordered that Cooper — identified in court documents as Jonathan Javier Cooper — must have prior approval from the court before traveling outside of Colorado. The Broncos are scheduled to play their first preseason game against the Falcons in Atlanta on Aug. 14.
According to the NFL’s personal conduct policy, players found guilty of criminal assault through an NFL investigation could face a baseline suspension of up to six games. That number can range higher or lower depending on aggravating or mitigating factors the league reviews around the incident.
Jonathon Cooper (0) of the Denver Broncos roams the sidelines before the game against the Houston Texans at NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas on Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)
“We continue to monitor all developments in the matter which remains under review of the personal conduct policy,” NFL spokesperson Brian McCarthy told The Post in a statement.
In the original arrest affidavit for Cooper’s girlfriend following the June 4 incident, she told police Cooper grabbed and lifted her by the neck and threw her to the ground several times during their argument at his apartment after she accused him of infidelity. According to an updated arrest affidavit obtained by The Post Friday morning, the woman was taken to the Anschutz Medical Center in Aurora after Cooper’s initial arrest for a forensic examination.
A forensic nurse who evaluated Cooper’s girlfriend reported to police that the woman had experienced “strangulation with hypoxia and traumatic brain injury,” the affidavit reads.
“Regarding seriously bodily injury, it is my medical opinion that the above … patient experienced physical injury which, either at the time of the actual injury or at a later time involved… (a) substantial risk of death (and) a substantial risk of protracted loss or impairment of the function of any part or organ on the body,” the nurse wrote, as the affidavit details.
Cooper originally denied any physical altercation to a responding officer, according to the affidavit. After the officer asked Cooper if he grabbed his girlfriend’s neck, Cooper “nodded his head up and down, coupled with an mm-hmm,” and said he grabbed it “aggressive,” the affidavit reads.
Cooper told police in that same affidavit that both he and his girlfriend had been dealing with emotional stress recently, and that such an incident was an “uncommon occurrence.”
“Cooper questioned where the anger and aggression came from, and when asked, confirmed he’s had two serious concussions in the past, both from football,” the affidavit reads.
A day after those charges were levied, Cooper sent his girlfriend nearly 20 text messages Thursday and called her via FaceTime and a social media platform while she was speaking with an officer, according to a subsequent arrest affidavit. Later in the day, he appeared at her apartment and knocked on the door for five to 10 minutes, the affidavit reads.
Some of the messages are sexual in nature. Cooper repeatedly asked his girlfriend if he could see her, if he could be with her and if she was “scared of the law.”
Cooper’s girlfriend told an officer that his showing up at the apartment made her feel “scared.”
Both Cooper and his former girlfriend had protection orders that prohibited them from interacting after they were both arrested in the June 4 altercation. Steinberg argued in court Friday that Cooper “did not have a no-contact order,” and therefore wasn’t prohibited from going to her house and knocking on her door. Steinberg also called police reporting that Cooper’s girlfriend was scared of him as “sensationalism” and “hyperbole.”
“It’s suggested … in multiple messages that this defendant asked to have sexual contact with (Cooper’s girlfriend) after she was assaulted,” Gainor said in court. “So for Mr. Steinberg or the record to reflect that this was not offensive conduct flies in the face of these messages.”
While prosecutors requested that an ankle monitor be issued to Cooper in light of how quickly he violated the protection order, Solomon declined to do so.
The 28-year-old Cooper is playing the 2026 season in Denver on the second year of a four-year, $60 million contract extension signed in November 2024. He finished second on the Broncos in sacks in both 2024 (10.5) and 2025 (8.0).
He has been with the team across the last two weeks of organized team activities. On Thursday, before Cooper’s second arrest, Broncos head coach Sean Payton told reporters that team leadership had a “long visit” with him.
“Now the process plays out,” Payton said. “The league obviously will be very much involved in that. We’ll stay abreast, but much like you all. I think that’s where it’s at. We just go from there.”
Cooper currently has a disposition hearing scheduled for July 14 on Thursday’s charge of violating the protection order, and has a jury trial scheduled July 22 and 23 for his original misdemeanor charge of criminal mischief last week, according to court records.
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