Charges to be sought in bullpen fight

[Louis Cypher]

By Martin Finucane, Associated Press, 10/20/2003

BOSTON -- Police are planning to seek charges Tuesday in the bullpen brawl that broke out during the American League Championship Series between the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees at Fenway Park.

The police will seek charges of assault and battery against Yankees reliever Jeff Nelson and right fielder Karim Garcia, police spokesman John Boyle said Monday. He declined further comment.

Police will ask a clerk-magistrate in the city's Roxbury District Court to schedule a show-cause hearing to determine whether there is probable cause to charge the players, Suffolk district attorney's spokesman David Procopio said.

"Boston police have conducted a very comprehensive investigation and moved slowly with good reason. We wanted to make sure we had the clearest picture of what occurred. At this point, the police and this office are confident that the next step should be the scheduling of a clerk's hearing," Procopio said.

Procopio said the hearing would probably be scheduled sometime in November.

Yankees general manager Brian Cashman had little to say about the case.

"It's still got to work its way out. It's a long way from being done," Cashman said.

Groundskeeper Paul Williams, 24, of Derry, N.H., was treated and released from a hospital after a fracas with Nelson, Garcia and several other Yankees during the ninth inning of New York's 4-3 win in the Oct. 11 game.

Williams, a part-time grounds keeper, apparently was cheering the Red Sox while working in the Yankees bullpen, Red Sox officials said.

Williams was treated at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and was released wearing a neck brace.

Williams' mother, Phyllis, contacted at the family home in Londonderry, N.H. where Williams, who is a special education teacher in the Derry schools, stayed after his injury, said Williams had no comment.

Garcia and Nelson, interviewed in the visitors' clubhouse in Miami where the Yankees are taking on the Florida Marlins in the World Series, said they were unaware of the charges.

"I haven't heard anything," said Nelson.

"There's nothing to say. We'll see what happens and go from there," said Garcia.