Familia arrested // domestic violence

[G-Fafif]

Somewhere between Benitez and Rodriguez was Ambiorix Burgos, also on the blotter.

[Edgy MD]

Man there's a thousand articles out there this morning, all with a paucity of facts.

[Centerfield]

What a shitty day yesterday was. Started with a bad joke, ended with what we were hoping was a bad dream.

When I saw this thread yesterday I was filled with dread, then a glimmer of hope when it occurred to me that maybe JCL was making a lame joke like the Cespedes thread. Then I kept checking twitter in the hopes that this was, in fact, a false report. But then it became clear that the report that this was a false report was a false report. Shitty.

I'm still hoping that when the details emerge, this will have nothing to do with Familia's wife, or any other woman, and that instead it will be that Jeurys punched his douchebag stepbrother who's been living on his couch and making passes at his wife.

Sometimes I hate baseball.

[Centerfield]

Ashie62 wrote: Francisco Rodriguez is the first Met bullpenner to have a domestic issue. In the locker room I believe. He skated.

Here's the article.

http://www.espn.com/new-york/mlb/news/story?id=5457176

In the article it says Rodriguez fell under domestic violence laws. Which means that you can get nabbed for hitting a guy.

I can't believe I am sitting here on Wednesday morning hoping that the person Familia punched on Monday night was male. Being a fan makes you do such crazy things.

[Benjamin Grimm]

News reports today indicate that the victim was in fact Familia's wife.

[Edgy MD]

It's amazin' that it's multiple days and that's the only emergent detail, a detail which was more or less leaked previously.

[Centerfield]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: News reports today indicate that the victim was in fact Familia's wife.

Well that's shitty.

Hope that she is ok. Emotionally and physically. While I am sitting here worried about who will close, she is nursing her injuries.

Fucking hell Jeurys. Why did you have to be an asshole.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Familia's wife apparently called 911 a few times but then hung up. A dispatcher called back and she eventually described what was happening.

The Fort Lee Patch wrote: A New York Mets pitcher was "drunk" and "going crazy" on the night he was arrested for alleged domestic violence in New Jersey, according to the 911 call of the incident. NJ.com obtained an audio copy of the 911 call reporting the alleged domestic violence involving Jeurys Familia, an All-Star pitcher for the New York Mets. Familia was charged with domestic violence just days after he was featured in an anti-domestic violence advertising campaign, a complaint authorities filed in Fort Lee Municipal Court shows. Police said in the complaint that Familia caused "bodily injury to another" and that they saw a bruise on the person's right cheek and a scratch on the individual's chest, according to northjersey.com. Familia's wife, Bianca Rivas, made several 911 calls to Fort Lee police on Oct. 31, beginning at 2:18 a.m., before finally responding to a dispatcher, according to the nj.com report. "What's the problem over there?" the dispatcher says in the call "My husband had a little bit of alcohol and he's going crazy," says Rivas. "Your husband is drinking and you're in a dispute with him?" the dispatcher asked. "Yeah. He's drunk," Rivas responds.

I listened to the audio of the 911 call, available at http://patch.com/new-jersey/fortlee/911-call-mets-pitcher-drunk-going-crazy-n-j-arrest-audio

Despite some of the descriptions that I've seen in some articles, the tone doesn't sound "frantic" at all. If you decide to listen, you can pretty much skip ahead to the 3:30 mark.

[Edgy MD]

Really? You weren't impressed by the three minutes of dead air and one-way conversations?

[Edgy MD]

I guess "frantic" can describe the number of calls placed back and forth before they actually made a connection.

[Centerfield]

She sounds annoyed, more than threatened. Certainly not frantic.

But again, you have to investigate. She was injured. Gotta get to the bottom of things.

[Edgy MD]

Charges dropped. According to Newsday's Jim Baumbach...

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Obviously, MLB may see things another way, but this certainly doesn't strengthen baseball's case against him.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I don't expect that the suspension will be too lengthy. It sounds like it should be shorter than the one that Jose Reyes received. My guess is at most 30 games. This new information may make it shorter than that.

[Centerfield]

Charges dropped. According to Newsday's Jim Baumbach... [tweet]https://twitter.com/jimbaumbach/status/809413896360497153[/tweet] [tweet]https://twitter.com/jimbaumbach/status/809413174600417280[/tweet] [tweet]https://twitter.com/jimbaumbach/status/809412992827850752[/tweet] Obviously, MLB may see things another way, but this certainly doesn't strengthen baseball's case against him.

Wait, so does that mean they concluded there was no domestic violence?

[Benjamin Grimm]

Or maybe that they couldn't conclude that there was.

[Centerfield]

I think this distinction will be important. There is a big difference between the prosecution being unable to prove their case and the prosecution concluding that no DV occurred.

[Edgy MD]

You're the law-talking guy, but if the prosecution is quoted as making statements that work against their own case, and the case has been expunged from the official record, I'd think of that as a best-case scenario, from the perspective of whoever is going to represent him on behalf of the union.

That said, they may still end up accepting a suspension of some sort—perhaps 10 days or 10 games—because appearances are important and if nothing else, he appears to have gotten psycho-drunk enough to endanger his family, and that's not nothing.

[Zvon]

Baseball should not be considered the judge in these situations. The charges were dropped. Case closed. No charges. No suspension. They can't be suspending players simply because they were accused of something.

I'm not saying what Familia did, whatever it was, wasn't bad. More than likely it was. But you can't be going by accusations. We have an idea what happened but we don't really know, yet most people have already branded him guilty. Baseball should take a step back and not address such accusations except to say that MLB abhors domestic violence and we reserve judgement and withhold punishment until the case is brought to trial and a determination has been made.

I think domestic violence is really bad and don't condone it in any way, but even players should be afforded due process when accused of such serious offenses.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Well, the problem with that is that when charges are dropped, as they were with Jose Reyes, how can we know that the wife wasn't intimidated into dropping those charges?

[Zvon]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Well, the problem with that is that when charges are dropped, as they were with Jose Reyes, how can we know that the wife wasn't intimidated into dropping those charges?

How do we know the wife wasn't exaggerating the situation because she's a devious person. I'm not saying Familia's wife is such a case but the thing is there are people like that out there. As things stand on the record, we just don't know. If baseball does it's own investigation and publishes it's findings I'll back whatever they decide. But not if what they decide is based solely on accusations. That's just wrong.

[Edgy MD]

I'm certainly not advocating denying players due process, but MLB has its own form of due process outlined in the general agreement. And beyond violations of the law, it's their business to find out if players violate MLB policy.

[Zvon]

Great. I'll wait for their investigative report and then back their findings if it is warranted.

[Benjamin Grimm]

This is what you said:

The charges were dropped. Case closed. No charges. No suspension.

That can't be how it works, because it's possible that the charges get dropped because the abuser intimidates the victim into dropping the charges. Jose Reyes clearly attacked his wife. But the charges were dropped. "No charges. No suspension" means that Jose shouldn't have been suspended. I can't agree with that.

[Centerfield]

There are different burdens of proof for civil and criminal liability.

[Lefty Specialist]

I'm betting he gets something in the 30-50 day range. MLB won't turn a blind eye to this just because the charges were dropped in court.

[Centerfield]

Edgy MD wrote: You're the law-talking guy, but if the prosecution is quoted as making statements that work against their own case, and the case has been expunged from the official record, I'd think of that as a best-case scenario, from the perspective of whoever is going to represent him on behalf of the union. That said, they may still end up accepting a suspension of some sort—perhaps 10 days or 10 games—because appearances are important and if nothing else, he appears to have gotten psycho-drunk enough to endanger his family, and that's not nothing.

That's what I'm thinking. This is different than "the victim won't cooperate", or "we didn't have enough evidence to proceed". If the Newsday tweets are correct, they actually reached a conclusion that no domestic violence took place.

If that is the case, then there should be no suspension.

Somewhere on twitter it said Familia barricaded himself into his bathroom. If you are feeling out of control, that's you know, kinda the responsible thing to do.

Sure, getting drunk and getting out of control is not without fault, but if you are going to end up suspending quite a few guys if that is your criteria.

[Guest themetfairy]

If he didn't hit, you must acquit!

Seriously - if the finding is that no abuse took place then I don't see it as MLB's place to punish somebody for a non-event.

[Guest cooby]

That's kinda how I see it, but as in any of these cases, I hope if he did injure her, he gets his due in some other form, such as a car door falls off when he opens it or something. You know, some kind of bad luck dogging him.

[Frayed Knot]

Determining that it's a non-crime doesn't necessarily make it a non-event.

Essentially this decision by the judicial system means that the MLB investigation part of it is just beginning, or I'm sure that it's already begun only now it takes precedence and moves to the forefront.
Now maybe they also decide that this doesn't require any action but they don't automatically decide that based on the fact that the courts didn't.

[Guest themetfairy]

cooby wrote: That's kinda how I see it, but as in any of these cases, I hope if he did injure her, he gets his due in some other form, such as a car door falls off when he opens it or something. You know, some kind of bad luck dogging him.

That would be the most Metsian kind of injury ever!