ESPN writer Howard Bryant and his wife are disputing an alleged domestic disturbance that resulted in his arrest on multiple charges.
Bryant was arrested early Saturday afternoon after being accused of assaulting his wife outside a Massachusetts pizzeria. Bryant was charged with “domestic assault and battery, assault and battery on a police officer and resisting arrest,” and was released on $5,000 bail.
The police claim they received “multiple calls from witnesses saying a man had put his hands on a woman’s neck, pushed her against a parked vehicle and pinned her there.” However, both Bryant and his alleged victim, wife Veronique Bryant, deny any wrongdoing.
“The police made assumptions about my husband that weren’t true,” Veronique Bryant said in a statement, “I was never abused or in fear of Howard on that day or any other day.”
Bryant’s attorney believes witnesses viewed the incident along racial lines. “I believe that witnesses saw things through the lens of race and if it were a Caucasian male they wouldn’t have blinked at what they saw.”
The police have denied the charges of racial bias. A spokesperson quoted by the Boston Herald said Bryant was arrested “first and foremost, because evidence indicates he physically assaulted a woman,” and that additional charges were filed “because he was being combative with arresting officers” (bostonherald.com, 2/28/11).
The spokesman went on to allege that Bryant “refused to let the trooper handcuff him,” and “at one point [struck] the trooper in the chest with his elbow.”
According to Bryant himself, the police “chose aggression over first over dialogue,” and threatened to taser him whenever he spoke. Bryant: “[O]ne conversation with either Veronique or with me would have diffused the entire situation.”
This is the second time in a year an ESPN-affiliated sportswriter has faced a domestic violence arrest. Last August, Around the Horn contributor Jay Mariotti was arrested on domestic violence charges and later pleaded to a misdemeanor. He has not been back on ESPN since.
