Howard Bryant, a senior sportswriter writer for ESPN, has pleaded not guilty to charges of domestic assault and battery, assault and battery on a police officer and resisting arrest, as reported by USA Today and other news media outlets.
Bryant, 42, entered his not guilty plea in Greenfield Massachusetts District Court.
Both Bryant, a black man, and his wife Veronique Bryant, a white woman, have argued that the Massachusetts State Police discriminated against them.
The Bryants contend that not only was Mr. Bryant handcuffed and arrested in front of his six-year-old son, and wife, that he was also threatened by police with a taser jolt.
According to the Massachusetts State Police the child in question, the Bryant’s six-year-old son, watched the event unfold from the back seat of his parent’s SUV. Police contend that they checked on the boy at the scene and he appeared to be doing fine.
Bryant’s attorney, Buz Eisenberg, contends that his client was the victim of discrimination. Eisenberg said, “I believe that witnesses saw things through the lens of race and if it were a Caucasian male they wouldn't have blinked at what they saw.”
Bryant released this statement, “I am so sad today. I am sad today because this attack on me by the Massachusetts State Police and the Buckland Police has made it necessary for me to defend untrue allegations and repair my reputation when one conversation with either Veronique or with me would have diffused the entire situation. Instead, the police chose aggression first over dialogue, threatened to taser me whenever I tried to speak, and all in front of my 6-year-old son. As a result, I have to defend a charge that I attacked both the woman I love and the police when nothing could be further from the truth.”
Veronique Bryant also supported her husband by stating, “This is all so unfair. There was no investigation. The police made assumptions about my husband that weren't true. I was never abused or in fear of Howard on that day or any other day. I wasn't running from him or trying to get away from him. The police weren't listening to me and they attacked him with violence with our 6-year-old watching.”
The incident in question unfolded when state police had received more than one call from witnesses that said they saw a man wrap his hands around a woman’s neck and then push her against a parked car to hold her down.
When state troopers arrived at the scene they were unable, at first, to arrest Bryant. Officers contend that Bryan refused to put his hands behind his back and struck an officer with his elbow.
It took three officers to put Bryant into an “arm lock” and place his chest against the hood of his car.
From there Bryant was read his Miranda rights and taken to the Shelburne Falls state police barracks.
Five witnesses gave statements while the victim herself was “reluctant” to answer any questions.
State prosecutors can try Bryant on domestic violence charges without the cooperation of the victim.
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