The State of Texas: Rangers Prospects Accused of Sexually Assaulting Teammate

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“Hopefully, you can get back to Ireland for the holidays.”

—A note a customer at a Houston restaurant left on a receipt, along with a $750 tip, according to KTRK. Apparently the table’s waiter had mentioned how he wanted to return to Ireland once his child is born in January to introduce his newborn to the rest of his family, and the customer decided to chip in.

BIG NEWS

A Texas Rangers player returns to the dugout in the middle of the fourth inning as the Rangers take on the Colorado Rockies at Globe Life Park in Arlington on May 8, 2014 in Arlington, Texas. — Tom Pennington/Getty

Bad Rangers — At least four Texas Rangers prospects are expected to face charges in the Dominican Republic after participating in an alleged sexual assault of an underage teammate at the Rangers’s facility in the Dominican Republic, according to Yahoo Sports. The incident reportedly occurred in October and was apparently caught on video by a cell phone, then shared on Snapchat. According to Yahoo, the video shows the alleged victim wearing a Rangers shirt and Rangers shorts, pinned onto a bed with his arms behind his back as at least four men grab the alleged victim’s penis underneath a hand towel. Yahoo described the incident as “forced masturbation.” According to Yahoo, “all of the men in the video, including the alleged victim, are seen laughing.” The alleged assault was just one of many hazing incidents of players from Venezuela and Colombia, Yahoo wrote, citing anonymous sources. Some players targeted in the hazing were under eighteen years old. The Rangers reported the alleged sexual assault to Dominican authorities earlier this month, and Major League Baseball is also investigating. Rangers general manager Jon Daniels told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that the team reported the incident as soon as they became aware of it. “Obviously, I take it very seriously,” Daniels told the Star-Telegram. “It’s an ongoing investigation. We really can’t comment beyond that.” In a statement, the Rangers said that the organization is “cooperating fully with Major League Baseball and the authorities in the Dominican Republic.” According to Yahoo, police in the Dominican Republic have questioned eight Rangers prospects, and while they have yet to file charges against any of them, sources told Yahoo that prosecutors said in court that they will charge at least four.

MEANWHILE, IN TEXAS

Strong Fallout — After reports swirled over the weekend claiming Texas Longhorns head football coach Charlie Strong would soon be fired, Monday provided an opportunity to take a deep breath and even offered a little bit of clarity. Strong showed up to his weekly press conference Monday, and he spoke pretty openly to reporters about his awkward situation. According to ESPN, Strong said he met with athletic director Mike Perrin and university president Gregory Fenves on Sunday, and they told him what Perrin has told the media pretty much all along: Strong will be evaluated at the end of the season. That contradicts some reports saying that that Strong won’t make it past next week’s game against TCU. Still, Strong seems hopeful. According to the Austin American-Statesman, he said he wants to come back next year. He clearly has the support of his players, who showed up to the press conference and considered boycotting the TCU game, according to the Statesman. As the Texas Tribune notes, the university could end up forking over the full $10 million left on Strong’s contract if it does decide to cut ties with the coach.

Camera Racket — Body cameras are supposed to be another means of transparency for police departments that properly employ them, but Texas just made it more difficult for the public to access footage captured by those cameras. The Texas Secretary of State announced on Friday that the state will require people to pay a fee if they want access to body camera footage, the Dallas Morning News first reported Monday. The proposed rule says that law enforcement agencies will bill requestors $10 for each recording they release to the public, “with an additional fee of $1 per minute of footage if an identical copy hasn’t been released.” The fee is supposedly meant to cover the cost of reviewing and making the recording. The rule only applies to body camera videos, not footage captured by dashboard cameras. There were no public comments regarding the rule when it was first proposed in July—hardly a surprise, considering the proposed rule was buried in the Secretary of State’s obscure online publication, the Texas Register—so the proposed rule will soon become a confirmed rule.

Officer Down — A San Antonio police detective was shot and killed during a traffic stop near the department’s downtown headquarters on Sunday morning, and after a short manhunt, a suspect was apprehended the next day. Otis Tyrone McKane was arrested and charged with capital murder on Monday night, according to the San Antonio Express-News. San Antonio’s police chief said McKane was inside the department’s headquarters on the morning of the shooting, and he spoke to a clerk for about twenty seconds before he left, about four hours before the shooting. “I’ve been through several custody battles and I was upset at the situation that I was in and I lashed out at someone that didn’t deserve it,” McKane told KENS as he was being escorted in handcuffs by police. When asked if he had anything to say to the detective’s family, McKane said, “sorry.” The victim, Detective Benjamin Marconi, 50, was a twenty-year veteran of the San Antonio police force. He was allegedly ambushed by McKane at his patrol car outside the department’s headquarters. In a statement, Marconi’s family said he was “a wonderful father, brother, grandfather, friend and last, but not least, a peace officer.”