Disgraced former Dodgers star Julio Urías has been charged with five counts of domestic violence by the Los Angeles City Attorney. The accusation came this week, seven months after the Sinaloa pitcher was detained by the police after carrying out an incident of sexist violence against a woman. Authorities did not press charges because the victim did not want to do so. The legal problems of the 27-year-old left-hander, who is currently without a team, complicate his continuity in American professional baseball.
The charges that Urías must face are one of family violence, kidnapping, beatings and two others of sexist violence separate from the first charge, as explained by a spokesperson for the Mayor’s Office to ESPN and Los Angeles Times. The accusation comes three months after the Los Angeles County Prosecutor’s Office issued a statement in which it reported that it was not going to formally accuse the athlete because it was not justified by “the injuries of the victim or the background of the alleged defendant.” Urías is due to appear in court on May 2.
The entire battery of minor charges, known in English as misdemeanors, They were made possible by months of investigation into the incident. The major crimes office of the California Highway Patrol, the state police, investigated for three months the events that occurred on the night of September 5, 2023. The incident occurred after a soccer game to which Urías was invited due to his influential weight among the Latin and sports community of Los Angeles.
The report in the hands of county prosecutors alleged that the star pitcher had pushed his wife Daisy against a fence and pulled her hair and shoulders. The scene was seen by witnesses, who alerted the police at BMO Stadium, where LAFC played against Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami. Urías was arrested and taken to the police station, where he was released the next morning after paying $50,000 bail.
Without the case needing to go to court, the episode was enough to end Urías’ career with the Dodgers, where many fans compared him to the Mexican legend Fernando Valenzuela. The team, with whom he was champion in 2020, separated him. His shirt was removed from the organization’s souvenir stores. His face disappeared from all promotion and communication of the National League team. The arrival of Japanese superstar Shohei Ohtani to the franchise plunged Urías into oblivion.
The pitcher had already been punished in 2019, when he was suspended without pay after a similar episode of domestic violence where he was also arrested, but where he avoided charges. No player has been suspended twice since the league, Major League Baseball, passed a conduct rule to prevent sexist violence and harassment.
A few weeks ago, Scott Boras, Urías’ representative, had been optimistic about the player’s future in the United States. “We are all waiting for the authorities to tell us what situation Julio is in,” Boras said at the end of March. The powerful agent assured the press that the Sinaloa native has stayed in shape during this time despite not playing for seven months and that he was also “growing personally.”
A year ago, Boras predicted a promising future for the 27-year-old athlete. Urías became a free agent this season, which allowed him to aspire to a juicy contract. Some said that this could amount to 200 million dollars. Boras himself assured that several teams had shown interest in using his services. Legal problems are now an obstacle to his continuity in the United States. The future has been filled with dark clouds.
You can follow The USA Print in Facebook and xor sign up here to receive our weekly newsletter.
