Baseball star axed as bashing revealed
PROFESSIONAL baseball player Danry Vasquez has been kicked off his Pennsylvania team after a video of him beating his then-girlfriend two years ago went public this week.
The Venezuelan outfielder was arrested in 2016 on domestic violence charges after repeatedly hitting the unnamed woman and dragging her down the stairs by her hair.
The video was obtained and released by KRIS TV, a news company from Corpus Christi, Texas, earlier this week.
At the time, Vasquez was playing for the Corpus Christi Hooks, the Double-A minor league affiliate of American Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise the Houston Astros, which cut him days after the incident.
Vasquez was arrested on August 4, 2016, two days after he was caught on camera.
But his case was dismissed earlier this month after he completed the ordered angermanagement courses and paid a fine. No criminal conviction was recorded as his partner refused to press charges.
The prosecutor on the case, Nueces County District Lawyer Mark Gonzalez, told KRIS TV he was “forced to dismiss the case” because the player had “done everything we asked him to do”.
“It was an assault that occurred, we had all the evidence to prove it. We just allowed this individual to hopefully get the training and education so he wouldn’t continue to assault people he has relationships with,” Mr Gonzalez added.
Photos on Facebook show the pair stayed together for at least two months after the incident.
In October 2016, Vasquez posted a photo of him and the woman, whom he names as Fabiana, cuddling on Facebook.
In the translated caption, Vasquez says she is the love of his life and he will stay with her until the end of the world.
“We are a team and nothing and nobody can separate us. Not rabies or the biggest hurricane,” he wrote.
In 2014, two years before the incident, Vasquez posted another gushing photo of him and Fabiana.
The video, which officials had at the time of the arrest, shows Vasquez lashing out at the woman by smacking her with the back of his right hand, pulling her down the stairs and hitting her again multiple times while she puts up her arms in self-defence.
Despite the couple staying together after the incident and court case, the 24-year-old is now married to another woman.