Quarterback Manziel to appear in Dallas court next week on assault charge

By Lisa Maria Garza

DALLAS (Reuters) - Former Cleveland Browns quarterback Johnny Manziel has been ordered to appear in a Dallas court next week after being charged with assaulting his former girlfriend, according to court records released on Wednesday.

Dallas County Judge Roberto Cañas also set Manziel’s bond at $1,500 for the class-A misdemeanor charge and will review his bond conditions at the May 5 hearing, the records showed. It will be Manziel's first court appearance and he also might enter a plea. His lawyers have said he will plead not guilty.

The charge, which can bring up to one year in prison, is the latest setback for the former U.S. football star whose erratic play and partying prompted the Cleveland Browns to cut him in March.

Manziel, 23, who won the Heisman Trophy as the most outstanding player in college football when he was at Texas A&M University, is expected to surrender to Dallas authorities for booking next week, his lawyer Robert Hinton told local media on Wednesday.

Hours after his indictment was announced on Tuesday, Manziel was seen in pictures circulating on social media attending a Justin Bieber concert in Cleveland with friends, including his former Browns teammate Joe Haden.

The charge against Manziel, issued by a Dallas County grand jury that met last week, stems from a January incident in which he is suspected of hitting, kidnapping and threatening to kill Colleen Crowley, 23.

She accused Manziel of hitting her so hard that she temporarily lost her hearing, court papers show.

In a police report released in early February, Crowley said Manziel hit her after they met friends at a Dallas hotel in late January and again on the same night when they were driving to her Fort Worth home. He also threatened to kill her and himself, she said.

Last week, in a statement, Manziel said: "I’m hoping to take care of the issues in front of me right now so I can focus on what I have to do if I want to play in 2016."

(Reporting by Lisa Maria Garza; Editing by Jon Herskovitz and Bill Trott)