MetsMan67
Over Seas' Scout
Germany
Posts: 106
(10/21/03 1:13 pm)
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 Boston Police File Summons...
Boston Police File Summons for 2 Yankees Over Bullpen Fight
By KATIE ZEZIMA
NEW YORK TIMES - Published: October 21, 2003
OSTON, Oct. 21 — The Boston police filed a summons today seeking assault and battery charges against the Yankees' Jeff Nelson and Karim Garcia, who were involved in a bullpen fight at Fenway Park during Game 3 of the American League Championship Series.
A judge in Roxbury District Court, where the summons was filed, is expected to set a hearing, possibly in November, for the police to present evidence against Nelson, a relief pitcher, and Garcia, a right fielder.
At that hearing, a judge will determine whether there is sufficient evidence to charge Garcia and Nelson with assault and battery, according to David Procopio, a spokesman for the Suffolk County district attorney's office.
Filing the summons today was a formality that did not require the presence of the two players nor their attorneys.
Garcia and Nelson will be able to attend the hearing and present evidence but are not required to do so, Procopio said.
Should the clerk-magistrate find probable cause and charge the players, he can schedule an arraignment for as early as that day, Procopio said. The maximum penalty for assault and battery, a misdemeanor in Massachusetts, is two and a half years in jail, a $500 fine, or both. There is no minimum mandatory sentence, giving judges flexibility in ruling.
Neither Procopio nor the police would comment on the specifics of the investigation.
Garcia said he had no comment on the police's pursuit of charges against him. "Nobody has said anything to me," he said. Nelson was unavailable for comment.
According to a police report filed the day of the brawl, on Oct. 11, two officers said they watched as Nelson and Garcia engaged in an unprovoked attack on Paul Williams, 24, a member of the Red Sox grounds crew who was cheering for Boston in the Yankees' bullpen.
The officers reported that Nelson began punching Williams and that Garcia jumped the right-field wall and struck Williams with his left hand. Other members of the Yankees' bullpen jumped on Williams, the report said, some of them striking him and others trying to break up the melee. A Boston police spokesman said it was not known if any other Yankee would be charged.
Williams, an eighth-grade special-education teacher from Derry, N.H., was treated at a local hospital for injuries to his head, mouth and body, some of which appeared to be inflicted by cleats, the report said. He was shown on local television wearing a neck brace in the days after the incident.
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