Astros right-hander Roberto Osuna appeared at a court hearing and agreed to a one-year peace bond, as Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle reports (Twitter links). With that agreement, the assault charge from the alleged victim in his pending domestic abuse case was withdrawn. Under the terms of the peace bond, Osuna will not be permitted to contact the alleged victim for one year without written consent and must avoid any further criminal charges.
Per the Canadian Department of Justice’s web site, peace bonds are generally used when “an individual (the defendant) appears likely to commit a criminal offence, but there are no reasonable grounds to believe that an offence has actually been committed.” The Canadian Department of Justice further adds that peace bonds are obtainable by “any person who fears that another person may injure them, their spouse or common-law partner, or a child, or may damage their property,” and violation of a peace bond can result in up to four years of prison time. Sportsnet’s Shi Davidi tweets that according to the Crown Prosecutor, the complainant is in Mexico with the couple’s three-year-old and wishes to continue co-parenting. She chose not to testify.
Osuna declined to speak with the media upon leaving the courthouse, instead only releasing the following statement via his lawyer (Twitter links via Rome and via Shi Davidi of Sportsnet):
“Now I can begin to put these alegations behind me and focus on baseball. I want to thank my family, teammates and fans for believing in me. I am grateful to the Astros for providing me with the opportunity to play baseball and compete for a World Series championship. I will make no further comments about this matter, as I plan on moving past this and look only to the future.”
The Astros, meanwhile, released their own statement on the proceedings:
“Today, the Ontario Court of Justice withdrew the assault charge against Roberto Osuna. The Houston Astros look forward to Roberto continuing his commitment to be a productive and caring part of our community. The Astros remain committed to increase our support rearding the issues of dometic violence and abuse of any kind. We have engaged with a number of local, state and national organizations — and we look forward to working with them in the short term and over the long term.”
There was a nice, healthy chorus of boos last night in Roberto’s return to Toronto last night in case anybody missed it.
Good.
He should be boo’d everywhere. There should be no place in MLB for a woman beater.
NFL welcomes him with open arms!
He’d be a choir boy on some of those teams.
First, there are more players in the NFL than MLB. Second, add up the numbers in both leagues with cases of complaints for abuse over the last two years, and they’re pretty much equal. Third, the NFL players association negotiated a punishment value for cases, which the MLB players association has yet to do. Fourth, with the number of cases being equal, and MLB having the lesser number of players, the percentage of cases for players is higher in baseball. Finally, he’d be more scrutinized in the NFL, and receive a swifter and more severe punishment.
Hey, since you’ve done all of the extensive data mining already and have the numbers (from both leagues) handy, would you please be a dear and share them?
would LOVE to see the data on number of NFL players arrested, particularly for violent crimes and domestic abuse vs. MLB.
The fact we can name the MLB guys on pretty much one hand but would need to research the NFL to make sure we got them all is pretty telling.
You only have one part of that correct the rest is all just nonsense that you made up. Only part you got right was that there are more players in the NFL than MLB
Wrong on which? It’s easy to say someone’s wrong without supporting why.
I would love to see all domestic abusers – Osuna, Chapman, etc – suspended without pay for a full calendar year. But that will never happen because who cares if a woman gets beaten or shot at, right? Give me a break. I am actively rooting against Houston this postseason because they traded for this loser.
Chapman’s garage is a woman? That’s a truly interesting interpretation of the facts that you are trying to use.
Lol. So what? The boos for Ken Giles will be much louder.
Nah. He’s been great in Toronto and to the best of our knowledge, has never hit a woman.
Corey and Trevor from Trailer Park Boys had a peace bond againt Ricky. Just a usless info comment on a useless post.
The first sentence of your comment was perfection. The second sentenced obliterated it.
*sentence
So leave then.
“Peace bonds are generally used when ‘an individual (the defendant) appears likely to commit a criminal offence.’”
The more I find out the more I hate this guy. Luhnow too for making this deal. He might have talent, but I don’t want a player like this on my darn team!
I’ve been an Astros fan for 29 years and I don’t want this man on the mound if we win another World Series. I would rather lose and I truly mean that. It would mar the season entirely for me. Although his presence already kind of has.
I feel bad for the victim in this. I hope she has a solid support group and foundation to help her thru this. That’s the most important thing in all of this.
You’re leaving out the second part of the Peace Bond quote and perhaps the most important part.
“….but there are no reasonable grounds to believe that an offence has actually been committed.”
I see that part, but then I’m also confused why MLB suspended him 80 games if there was never any suspicion of him actually committing the crime. This doesn’t add up from all the information we have received thus far
The mother refused to testify which likely made successfully prosecuting impossible.
I’m confused as to why MLB suspended him 80 games as well. What do they know that the court doesn’t? As a lifelong Astros fan, I don’t want a man that beats up on women either. With that being said, I have yet to see or hear of any evidence that he did so. The charges were dropped, and there was no evidence that he committed a crime. So…. at what point do we stop calling him a “woman beater”, and move on to calling him a baseball player?
She was battered and bruised. The crime was definitely committed. There are reports and evidence of this. But I’m on the app so I don’t think links work?
She just didn’t want to press charges. Which happens fairly regularly in these things. The peace bond was mostly because they don’t have proof they can convict him on in court but they know he did it
Most domestic violence cases aren’t prosecuted, in large part because the woman who was battered is financially dependent on her batterer. It’s a lousy system – you can easily find the photos of her bruises and cuts.
Looks like an order of protection with teeth. What I don’t understand is how can he co-parent if he has to get prior authorization to contact the mother? Very difficult it would seem.
Being from Ontario, I can provide a reasonable answer to this – Children’s Aid Services… Dad brings the child to a CAS location, and leaves. Mom then comes and picks up said child.
This is also where parents who are only allowed supervised visits go to visit their child/children. Then they’re under the watch of CAS.
Thanks. My guess though is the mother will stay in U.S. or Mexico if she’s from there so in reality, he likely got a pass.
Since she is in Mexico there is no reasonable way to follow up on this. She also has said she will continue her relationship with Osuna. Basically the Peace Bond will mean pretty much nothing.
As an Astros fan, I would rather see the Astros repeat with him on the team than see them lose. It’s silly to want to see your team lose just because you don’t like one person on that team.
Unless that person beats his girlfriend and pushes her down stairs.
Not really. Everybody has a line somewhere. Beating women is usually that line.
Perhaps “should be that line” is more accurate than “usually is that line”.
I agree.
Personally I don’t care about the personal lives of any of these players. The only reason their existence matters to me in the least is their ability to play baseball. That’s all I care about regarding them. It’s not my job to police them. If the police are comfortable with him being free and the owner of the Astros is comfortable with him being employed, then who am I to say otherwise? He is not in my sphere of influence, so why worry about it.
If the people in charge of the Astros are okay with him being an employee, then so be it. If you cannot handle that, then don’t watch the Astros. They are not going to fold without your fandom. If your principles require you to just walk away, then so be it. If you don’t want to walk away, then start a picket line outside Minute Maid Park. It won’t do any good, but at least you might feel better. I’m not trying to be a jerk, but it’s the truth.
Someone was removed from Minute Maid for bringing a sign with the Houston domestic violence support number, he was casually chatting with fans non violently and they removed him. Not saying your wrong but they clearly are removing fans with different points of view.
Can you cite the source? I’ve seen this a handful of times, but thus far, nobody has been able to post a credible source. It’s just a rumor.
If true, they have that right. They own the building. Picketing is not allowed inside buildings in just about every case.
I couldn’t have left a more concise post on the matter
The Canadians use of C instead of “s” in words like “offense” just doesn’t like right.
The Americans use of LIKE instead of “look” in words like “look” just doesn’t look right
Zing.
Furriners don’t spoke like us!
Good one, George!
Also an added note from Shi Davidi, ” Crown says complainant has a 3 year old with Osuna, is currently in Mexico, wants to continue coparenting with him and didn’t want to testify.”
As well Osuna can communicate with his GF if she agrees to it, which sounds like she has agreed based on the fact she wants him to still be an active parent in their childs life.
I was at the game last night and he received a very heavy rain of Boos from the crowd.
Untimely in this situation we will not really every know what happened, what he did or didn’t do and if his image was rightly or wrongly damaged.
It didnt serve Osuna’s ex to testify. If Osuna was convicted, then her meal ticket would be in jail, not collecting millions in earnings as a major league player.
Her actions only serve her best interest here. The more women who testify against abusive spouses, the more safety & justice for women.
Facts.
Even if she testified he wouldn’t go to jail. He was only charged with a minor assault charge, the lowest of all assault charges. Regardless of the outcome the most likely outcome was that he continued to play professionally and earn millions.
As well its also wrong to assume that his GF only chance at life is to suck money from him. I have no idea of her social situation and not all women will reject the opportunity to testify vs collect money.
I only added the note as it was left out from the write-up and is at the very least an important footnote to a story we know very little about.
Toronto is a great spot for Giles. No pressure to win and no real expectations. He does well without pressure on him.
In reality swapping out Osuna for Giles is likely an okay outcome. Osuna obviously is younger and more consistent but Giles has proven so far to be able to handle the 9th inning without issue.
Osuna lived in my building and the incident happened in the building. According to someone who knows, some of it was caught on camera. From what I’ve heard it involved fists, faces, pushing and staircases.
The Jays obviously know what happened and they wanted nothing to do with him so that tells you something. His girlfriend is probably emotionally as well as physically abused by him and knows he’s likely to make a lot of money, so ya of course she dropped the charges.
The unit he was living in is for sale for $2.2MM if anyone is interested…
Yes there was some pretty wild speculation but real facts are about zero in this case.
Like most, I would like some of that information so I can make a valid choice on how to view him. If he did do something in line with that speculation, it paints a pretty bad situation. However he was not charged with an assault charge in relation to that type of situation, he was charged with the lowest of all assault charges.
From the random facts out there and legal charges. I would suspect he was drunk, there was some level of a heated situation and perhaps was called in by a neighbour. I am surprised if there are pictures or video that none of it has leaked.
I am by no means hoping to defend him. I have always been hoping for a little more information as there was some speculation but not much in real evidence or public information.
Prosecuting a case is always difficult when the victim won’t testify. Video though if the above is accurate could change things unless local law doesn’t allow it to be used without supporting testimony. Just guessing here but the suspension that was served seems to speak loudly. If so, kudos to the Jays and nothing but Bronx cheers for the Astros. This could have. been another Rice situation. Not formal collusion but his career ended (I realize it could be a union situation as baseball’s is still much more powerful than football’s).
Yes and no. Osuna had already served a considerable amount of time before the suspension went down. The Blue Jays were pushing for a decision and his legal team claims they never even spoke to his GF and that Osuna just wanted to come back to play.
Could be legal talk or could be true, in Canada these cases could drag out over a year and MLB had a choice to make a decision before the legal situation came to a close.
Regardless I think MLB made a good call by doing their own investigation and making the play pay a penalty for a situation that in all likelihood was not a positive one. He paid some time and money for some poor choices, to what level those actions where is not apparent.
Not enough of a penalty if it’s true on the extent of what he did. Sports today has so much money involved that the risk v. reward allows immature and worse athletes to continue their craft. Private industry non union employees would be sent packing in a heartbeat in today’s environment.
It will be interesting to see if pictures or video ever surface. I have a good friend that works for Toronto OPP (police) who said the pics are just brutal and he really beat her bad. It’s a shame that these guys are protected by fame and $$.
If there were a conviction or he worked in a Job where he needed a security clearance they surely would. There’s tons of companies out there who don’t have the faintest clue what their employee’s record may consist of post hiring. It’s not like they’re continually running background checks on these guys. If something hit the local news, yeah that’d probably be a different story but if a guy is just getting arrested for DV, the employer probably doesn’t know.
They are going to be living together again.
Roberto is very close with her family, especially her brother who looks up to him. He has been spending time with them through this whole ordeal.
I don’t know what happened. He may very well have hit her. I just know she and her family have wanted him to return and be involved in their lives.
If in fact there were videos and pictures in evidence (and they were correctly taken for evidence) that would have made the crowns case easier for a conviction. Second, if she was brutally attacked he would not have only been charged with simple assault.
Also I believe this was handled by the Toronto Police and not the OPP which are different police bodies.
Fists, Faces, Pushing and Staircases
Isn’t that the the title of the new Kanye album in the works?
I keep hearing the same thing about a staircase and video of him beating her and yet there is nothing on the internet. In my opinion, this evidence is not actually available and is instead from a separate incident altogether involving Danry Vasquez, a former Astros prospect. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that this rumor started because people looked up “Astros” and “Domestic Abuse” and found the story about this individual and linked the 2 stories.
Comments open here and not for the Russell suspension?
Cub fans dont know how to play with sharp objects.
Why enable the comments on this but not on the Addision Russell story?
That’s what I’m wondering too
It is simply a judgment call on a case by case basis. We rarely close the comments section. In the Russell story, which was about a statement of allegations, there was an immediate rush of commenting (in addition to what we had also observed on the internet at large) that made clear it was going to be out of control. Here, we did not anticipate a similar issue and it has not proven necessary to close the comments.
A link to whatever MLBTR article that summarizes the initial arrest or what he did in the first place would be incredibly useful.
Not all of us have Osuna’s past 2 years chronicled in our bookmarks 🙂
Much of is was reported here a few days after the incident: that Osuna was negotiating a deal with the mother of his child so that she would not testify [and he could continue on with a lucrative career and she would raise his child.] #Osuna #Bluejays #Scoutseyes
Bingo. This was just the inevitable end.
Also have to remember they don’t need her to testify in order to pursue charges. Just makes it easier. In the end the crown accepted the deal.
Based on the information available, she will continue her relationship with Osuna. So its not a matter of negotiating a payout or silence payment. She didn’t want to press charges and wanted the incident behind them and went to Mexico to continue her life which apparently includes Osuna still
Oh, I get it. The Astros acquired Osuna so they could spearhead issues of domestic violence. That’s commendable of them. Maybe then they should coordinate with Osuna, who only “plans on moving past this”. Both responses seem canned and self-serving.
This whole thing pertaining to the 2 involved in the trade is somewhat curious. Osuna beat up his girfriend and Giles beat himself up.
So now that her and the kid are two countries away, he probably won’t beat her in Canada again, let’s go ahead and remove the bond.
“… peace bonds are generally used when… there are no reasonable grounds to believe that an offence has actually been committed.”
Yet, a certain clientele still advocates lynch law in absence of any evidence because the accused belongs to a certain politically precondemned group. The totalitarian mindsets of these people are no different from those who used to put on their white hoods with the intention of taking the law of the South into their own hands.
I’m pretty sure there would have been a different outcome had the victim not done this. I don’t think we should just act like nothing happened because he didn’t get prosecuted.
Again for you: “… no reasonable grounds to believe…”.
What about this part is so hard to understand? Or do you know more than the Canadian investigation and the court have determined? If so, spill the beans. If not, STFU.
Being “pretty sure there would have been a different outcome” is nothing but an ill-concealed attempt to sell one’s personal prejudice as facts.
The victim not testifying does not equal innocence. It means a lack of ability to prosecute. HUGE difference.
He was arrested and suspended due to credible evidence.
No. The MLB found he didn’t something wrong by suspending him. The Blue Jays thought he did something wrong by trading him. The justice system thought he did something wrong by having him agree to this peace bond. They couldn’t prosecute him because she didn’t give them the “reasonable grounds” to find him guilty. I’m not going to act like I know what happened, but if he hit her and she doesn’t want to charge him, he still hit her.
@ HalosHeavenJJ
Stop lying.
There’s never been any “credible evidence”. Otherwise the alleged victim’s testimony would not have been necessary in order to convict.
In cases of reported domestic violence, the mere accusation is enough to get one party arrested. Look up “mandatory arrest domestic violence”.
I did, even adding Ontario Canada to the search.
According to that link the police did as instructed and laid charges based on the evidence at hand. They then turned the file over to the court system.
Domestic violence is difficult to prove, especially when the victim won’t cooperate.
Notice Osuna was not declared Not Guilty today. Notice he still must complete counseling. This was a plea bargain, not an exoneration.
You’re lying again.
Police never had any evidence, other than the accusation. The surveillance video of the alleged crime scene exonerated Osuna.
According to the court, there “are no reasonable grounds to believe” that the alleged crime took place. And yes, this means that Osuna is innocent until proven guilty.
Btw., what would it say about the character of the alleged victim if she refused to testify against Osuna out of pure greed, thereby allowing a dangerous criminal to walk free and potentially assault more women?
Maybe if he was unemployed and left to wander he could come after her again? But if he was bound by a season of baseball and had to be elsewhere there was a better chance of him leaving her and her family alone?
He wasn’t exonerated? He negotiated the peace bond. If he was exonerated he’d have no sanctions or councelling he’d just be a free man
Totally agree JDG.
So…guilty until proven innocent?
Your idea of justice is worse than the Quintessons’.
Didn’t like the Astros getting him but this is about winning. Why haven’t Yankee fans stoned Aroldis Chapman to death? His incident even involved a gun. Might be that he can throw a baseball 105 and can help the Yankees win.
The truth is that the majority of any fan base would accept a guy if he helped them win. There’s not an exception out there
Years ago yes, JDG. Times are changing, albeit slowly…
Hopefully
Because Chapman never laid hands on his girlfriend. He went into his garage and shot it off into the ground
I just find it completely hypocritical of Houston to continue to suggest that they take domestic violence seriously while simultaneously embracing a perpetrator. If they had an ounce of integrity, or respect to survivors of domestic violence, they would steer clear of people like Osuna–who suggested that these were “allegations”; false accusations. Looks a lot more like the prosecution couldn’t get her to testify and settled for a slap on the wrist. Her call, but what a shame…
Funny what money does for folks, and it happens all the time… Sad. Even worse than watching Rangers baseball… Also: I think I threw up in my mouth a little reading the team and player statements. What gibberish…
Bengals want him.
Whammy!
Everyone is blaming Luhnow on this one. Certainly, he should receive a fair share of the blame for actively participating in a scheme that pays a woman beater millions. However, Jim Crane. Look into this guy’s history. Everywhere he’s been, it seems, he has promoted sexism and racism. Hell, he must be thrilled that his new ‘boy’ didn’t take no shlock from some dern female. ‘Put her in her place,’ is probably Crane’s final word on the subject. Well, MLB, would love to find out what conversations were had when you vetted this guy as the latest nouveau riche to buy-in. War profiteer? Awesome. $680M looks like a great price. Thank you.
Can you provide the sources for your claim that he promotes racism and sexism, I google it, but didn’t find anything.
It’s tough to provide links to sources that don’t exist.
Yes, that seems to be a common issue for these types of claims…
There is no exoneration. There is also no conviction. None of us has any idea of what really happened here. People tend to jump to conclusions, but, at least to my knowledge, no evidence has been released. We’ll probably never know. There was some kind of disagreement. There was likely violence involved. Beyond that, we really don’t know anything.
This is a bit unsettling, hope the victim gets the resolution she wants and Roberto learns his lesson that this is never something that is OK and that his status as a big leaguer doesn’t justify misbehavior.
But we need to stop lionizing our sports heroes. Even the greatest players are human and had problems they didn’t deal with properly. I feel bad for her and that this was pretty much swept under the rug, but I’m not going to stop cheering for the Astros nor will it affect my feelings if they’re successful this postseason