Former Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Julio Urias was involved in a domestic dispute going back to 2023, and now video footage of the incident has been released by the California Highway Patrol. To note, the video comes from a witness of the incident, who recorded what took place last year on September 3, after a MLS soccer game at BMO stadium in LA.
Urias was seen charging at his wife and pushing her into the fence, while also attempting to throw some punches.
In view of when the arrest first happened, the police report (via TMZ), matches up to what was seen in the video, "he came up from behind his partner, put his arm around her, forcefully pushed her into the barrier and pulled her hair."
CHP released eyewitness footage regarding Julio Urias' domestic dispute. pic.twitter.com/fkCoifpA4W
— Dodgers Tailgate (@DodgersTailgate) September 19, 2024
Luckily bystanders were there to try and de-escalate the situation.
Evidently, according to reports, the reason for the feud stemmed from Urias taking pictures with female fans outside the Los Angeles MLS stadium (LAFC vs. Inter Miami; 9/3/23).
The citizens who came over to help the woman, tried to keep the pitcher from causing any more harm. Nevertheless, the woman had a bloody nose, with strangulation marks and redness on her face.
Ultimately, the MLB pitcher was arrested and taken into police custody following this. Right away after being booked on a felony domestic violence charge, Urias posted a $50,000 bail. And since after facing five misdemeanor charges, he pleaded no contest to misdemeanor domestic battery four months ago, and correspondingly the other four charges were dropped.
Across eight seasons pitching for the Dodgers, the Culiacan, Mexico native has a 60-25 record, 3.11 ERA and 1.10 WHIP to go with 710 strikeouts in 717 innings.
Notably, he won a World Series with the Dodgers in 2020, and was the NL wins leader in 2021, while also being the NL ERA leader in 2022.
To point out, this is not the first time that Urias has been involved in a domestic violence incident, as he served a 20-game suspension by the MLB in 2019 after suspicion of domestic violence.
He was never charged with the crime though because he completed a 52-week domestic violence counseling program.
That is to say, the counseling didn't seem to work, as he has been once again placed under administrative leave by Major League Baseball after his most recent September arrest. And since then his contract with the Dodgers expired, so he is now technically a free agent.
With this in mind, there is a chance Urias, 28 years old, may never pitch again in the MLB, depending on the league's investigation into the matter. Important to consider, there is no player that has ever been suspended twice under MLB's domestic violence policy.
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