49ers announce Santa Clara game plans as some players face legal problems

The San Francisco 49ers’ first-ever home game at the planned $1.3 billion Levi’s Stadium will be a preseason contest in mid-August against the

Denver Broncos.

No specific date has been set yet, but the 49ers-Broncos game is to take place between August 14 and 18 at a time to be arranged during the second week of the 2014 preseason, according to 49ers public relations director Bob Lange.

The announcement came as hearings on unrelated felony criminal cases against San Francisco

49ers players Aldon Smith and Christopher Culliver were set to take place in Santa Clara County Superior Court, and after Miami, Florida police released information about a suspicious incident involving quarterback Colin Kaepernick and two

other NFL players.

Lange said the 49ers are to open the 2014 preseason away against the Baltimore Ravens, the team that defeated San Francisco in the Super Bowl in 2013, in Baltimore sometime between August 7 to 10.

The 49ers’ second preseason game at Levi’s, which has been scheduled for August 24 at 1 p.m. against the San Diego Chargers, will be broadcast nationally on FOX-TV, Lange said.

The team’s final preseason game also has an exact day assigned, August 28, when they are to play the Houston Texans in Houston.

The National Football League informed the 49ers about the preseason time frame Tuesday night and NFL teams have to work together to firm up precise game dates for the first two weeks of the four-week preseason, Lange said.

Some stadiums have concerts or professional sports such as Major League Baseball during the first two weeks of the preseason that NFL clubs will have to work around, Lange said.

The first professional game to be played at Levi’s is a Major League Soccer match pitting the San Jose Earthquakes against the Seattle Sounders FC on Aug. 2.

The NFL’s regular season schedule for 2014 will likely be released in the next couple of weeks, Lange said.

Meanwhile, 49ers star linebacker Aldon Smith, 25, has hearings on two separate criminal cases, including three felony counts of possessing an

illegal assault weapon and a misdemeanor charge of driving under the influence of alcohol, according to Deputy District Attorney Brian Buckelew.

The district attorney’s office filed the three felony charges against Smith on Oct. 9, after the office’s firearms unit examined five rifles recovered by sheriff’s deputies from Smith’s rented home outside San Jose in 2012. Deputies searched the home after a raucous late-night party

where two people were shot and wounded and Smith was stabbed in the leg.

Smith’s separate DUI case is on the court calendar for a pretrial conference. He was arrested on suspicion of DUI and marijuana possession on Sept. 20, after San Jose police said he crashed his car into a tree at about 7 a.m. on Bentley Ridge Drive in San Jose.

49ers player Culliver, 25, a 49ers cornerback, was arrested on March 28 for allegedly fleeing after a hit-and-run collision with a bicyclist, deliberately crashing his car into a person who witnessed the bicycle collision and possessing brass knuckles, an illegal weapon, according to San Jose police.

The bicycle rider was injured but not seriously and did not go to the hospital, according to Deputy District Attorney Jarin Shipp.

In Miami, police released information Thursday about a suspicious incident involving San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick and two other NFL players last week.

A police report was released naming Kaepernick, 49ers wide receiver Quinton Patton and Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Ricardo Lockette as being involved in an April 1 incident involving a woman at Lockette’s Miami apartment.

The woman reported drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana, then feeling light-headed and going to a bedroom to lie down.

The woman said Kaepernick, with whom she had a previous sexual relationship, came in and started kissing and undressing her, then “told her that he was going to be right back and left the bedroom,” the report states.

The report states that the woman remained in bed naked and Patton and Lockette allegedly “peeked” inside, prompting her to say, “What are you doing? Where is Colin?”

The woman said she can’t remember anything after that and woke up in a hospital bed. She said she does not know how she got to the hospital, according to the police report.

Initial media reports about the case referred to it as a sexual assault investigation, but the police report does not mention a possible assault.

49ers general manager Trent Baalke said in a statement that the team is “aware of the recent media report regarding Colin Kaepernick and is in the process of gathering the pertinent facts.”

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