Rockies shortstop Jose Reyes is currently scheduled to stand trial in April after pleading not guilty to charges of domestic abuse stemming from an incident in Hawaii on Halloween day last year, Christian Red of the New York Daily News reports. That’s the same date that Colorado is scheduled to open the 2016 season in Arizona.
The local prosecutor, Kerry Glen, said he would not rule out a plea deal between now and the start of the trial, though he gave no indication of the likelihood of such a scenario. “If I find that acceptable, we would enter into that agreement,” said Glen. “There is always potential for additional negotiation between now and then.”
Needless to say, the charges themselves appear appropriately serious given the accusations against Reyes. It certainly seems that he faces a realistic prospect of jail time if convicted, though the precise counts being pursued are not immediately clear from the article.
But there are quite significant additional considerations at play beyond the immediate criminal matter. According to the Daily News, it is not known whether Reyes — a native of the Dominican Republic — ever completed a reported effort to gain U.S. citizenship.
If he is not presently an American citizen, there certainly could be serious immigration repercussions in the event that he pleads guilty or is convicted. There are a wide variety of considerations that would go into just what could occur on the immigration side of things, but that does indeed appear to be a serious matter.
Senior MLBTR readers will no doubt recall that there have been several recent instances where players’ careers and personal lives were heavily impacted by immigration difficulties. Without intending any direct comparisons, the cases of Roberto Hernandez and Juan Carlos Oviedo (both of which involved the use of false identifies) involved contract disruptions and lengthy holds on their playing careers, though both were ultimately able to return. (To get a sense of how things played out in those cases, you can review the old tags for their assumed identities: Fausto Carmona and Leo Nunez.)
To be sure, the least important matters at issue here are the impact on the baseball season that lies ahead and Reyes’s contract status with the Rockies. But there are obviously real implications here from that perspective for both team and player. If nothing else, the trial date presents a self-evident conflict, as would any hypothetical prison time. And recent reports have been somewhat unclear as to the league’s timeline for deciding upon its own disciplinary action (if any), with suggestions that the commissioner will act before the season (if not Spring Training, too) but also that there’s an apparent preference to first allow the legal process to conclude.
I hope he gets what’s coming to him. Also, I hope the Rockies won’t be on the hook for a dime of what’s left on his contract.
You must be the guy who was there and saw the whole thing.
Well, there’s always the chance that she beat herself enough to be hospitalized and claimed that Reyes did it, so I suppose we should withhold any logical conclusions.
Jose. Oh how you have fallen….
He was never that great of a shortstop. A heavily overrated player from the start.
He has 4 seasons where he had between 5.6 and 5.9 fWAR, so no, you are very, very wrong when you say that.
She’s one gorgeous lady; Reyes is an idiot on multiple levels and he’s going to pay on multiple levels: Fines and court costs, pay loss due to suspension and a very favorable divorce settlement for her. Of course, she just might also be an idiot and forget the whole thing, in which case they deserve each other.
…and attorney fees as well.
Pretty classy that you open with her looks and close with her being an idiot. Deserving?
So now a sports forum is the place to project what you determine to be “classy”? Note the “IF”, the meaning of which should be easy for someone to logically discern, as it’s probably the most commonly used conjunctive qualifier when discussing baseball. Yes, they would be “deserving” of each other if she declined to testify; he chooses to abuse and she accepts it. We deserve what we control.
Right, not a good place to judge or troll. Viva la BASEBALL!!!
Pretty classy to open with her looks and close with her being an idiot. Deserving?
They have enough to suspend him, there is plenty of evidence his wife was beaten and it wouldn’t go to trial unless the prosecution had a good case . Might start with an indefinite suspension pending the trials resolution, and then add on as required depending on verdict. He could possibly end up getting deported and then the suspension becomes moot
Chapman is an entirely different matter, there is no real evidence except a he said she said with contradictory witness statements and no physical evidence of abuse (marks, injuries, medical treatment, etc).
Also, with the physical evidence, it will do him no good if she attempts to withdraw the complaint, as the state will certainly not drop charges.
Some points:
-Fact: A resident alien cannot be deported if the sentence is under a year.
-Seeing as Reyes and his wife are posing for pix on his instagram over Christmas, it doesn’t seem like she will testify against him in a court of law, which would get it thrown out or the sentence would be like community service or a fine. Also think about this: if he’s deported, he would more than likely lose his money, so if she’s smart, she will not testify against him, the charge will get thrown out and she can divorce him soon after and take half his money.
-Why was Josh Lueke allowed to continue to play in MLB after being a convicted rapist? Even if he served his time, being a MLB player is a PRIVILEGE, not a right, and it should be taken away if MLB is truly serious about this. Brett Myers beat his wife in front of witnesses and was allowed to start the next day. Chuck Knoblauch has beat two of his wives, Kirby Puckett was a monster of a person who is worshipped in Minnesota – if MLB is truly serious about cracking down on domestic violence, why don’t they force the Twins to remove his statues and plaques everywhere? IMO MLB isn’t doing enough and seems to be more like “as of NOW we are taking this seriously, but they are still letting things that happened in the recent past be heralded. It’s kind of half-assed imo.
Courts are less likely to drop charges in Domestic Abuse cases than in the past. Modern forensics may not only make her testimony unnecessary for a conviction, but also expose her to a potential perjury charge. If the evidence is strong, he’ll be advised to cop a plea. I saw the Xmas pic, and not sure if that was current.
Modern forensics? A bruise or cut could be caused in numerous different ways. Even if his DNA is on her, there is no way of proving Reyes caused the injuries without her testimony.unless there are other witnesses.
People aren’t linking the Reyes/Puig/Chapman cases with the Cardinals/Astros fiasco. All are precedent setting, and should be viewed as such.
If he’s guilty, throw him in prison. He shouldn’t get off easy just because he gets paid millions to play a silly game.