ESPN.com writer Howard Bryant has come to an agreement with Massachusetts authorities to have charges of domestic assault and resisting arrest dropped. The charges come from an incident in February when Bryant was arrested in Buckland, MA after witnesses said he put his hands around his wife’s throat and slammed her onto a car.
When she was questioned about the incident, Bryant’s wife, Veronique was very evasive about what happened. You can read the full police report here. In the end, authorities determined there was not enough evidence to support witness claims.
“A careful review of all of the statements of percipient witnesses that have been collected do not support allegations that Mr. Bryant struck, choked, pinned [his wife, Veronique] against a car, or inflicted violence upon her,” according to an agreement signed by Jeremy C. Bucci, chief trial counsel in the Northwestern District Attorney’s office for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and by Bryant’s lawyer, Buz Eisenberg.
Even as the investigation was ongoing, Bryant was still hard at work for the ESPN family of publications. He resumed writing for ESPN.com on March 11, less than two weeks after his arrest. After the charges were dropped, Bryant remained silent about the issue on his Twitter account, instead choosing to release a statement.
“Having always maintained my innocence of these charges, I’m gratified that the Commonwealth has determined that all allegations against me are unsubstantiated. I look forward to devoting full attention to my top priorities, my family and my work.”
So much gets made of when people are arrested for domestic issues, and rightly so. (See Mariotti, Jay.) Then it’s only fair that when someone is found innocent of those same charges that the news should be made equally public.