Aaron Hernandez’s Girlfriend Arraigned on a Perjury Charge

Prosecutors say Shayanna Jenkins lied to them as they investigated Hernandez's role in a murder.

Shayanna Jenkins

Associated Press

Shayanna Jenkins, Aaron Hernandez’s girlfriend and the mother of his child, pleaded not guilty today to a perjury charge in Bristol Superior Court, as prosecutors outlined the lies they believe she told a grand jury investigating the murder of Odin Lloyd. As usual, prosecutors presented evidence to paint a picture of an extremely inept cover-up in the days after Lloyd’s death. (Remember the Bubblicious?)

Jenkins has been dating Hernandez since they attended high school in Bristol, Conn.. But her role in the case is a bit more complex than just girlfriend-of-the-accused, as her sister dated Lloyd, and now she’s being charged with lying to those looking into her boyfriend’s actions.

Assistant District Attorney Patrick Bomberg told the court that Hernandez called Jenkins from his lawyer’s office and told her to get rid of a box in the basement. Cameras then showed her doing just that, though she later told a grand jury she couldn’t remember what she’d done with it, he said. Bomberg also said that Jenkins accompanied Hernandez to the police station where she alleged that Lloyd had been a drug dealer in an effort to paint him as having shady associations that might have resulted in his death. Prosecutors also said that she lied to the grand jury about trying to get house workers to sign non-disclosure documents.

Meanwhile, Jenkins’s lawyer accused prosecutors of being heavy-handed and abusive in bringing charges against Jenkins as a way to pressure her and Hernandez. She said Jenkins and Hernandez had a “Don’t ask, don’t tell relationship” common among entertainers and athletes (by which we’re pretty sure she doesn’t mean that Hernandez was secretly gay, but rather, that he was secretly gangster.)

A judge didn’t grant the prosecution’s request that bail be set at $5,000 and Jenkins was free to go until her pre-trial conference on November 6. See you then.