There has been precious little news on the status of Hector Olivera – today (July 11), a court hearing had been scheduled. Here’s what happened.
The following is based on interpretation of information posted to the Arlington District Court’s Website.
On Friday morning in Courtroom 3B of the General District Court for Arlington, Virginia, Hector Olivera’s new defense attorney Mark Schamel filed a motion with the court to request an additional continuance (delay) in the proceedings.
The request has been granted as of this morning – the original date of the Adjudication hearing that was to take place. This hearing has now been pushed back to September 8th. As before, Olivera is free until the court says otherwise – released on his own recognizance.
Handling This
This does introduce a quandary: at the end of May, Olivera accepted an 82-game suspension retroactive to April 30th. This suspension is scheduled to end on August 1st, at which time he could – in theory – resume playing baseball. If nothing else, he will resume getting paid – whether he ever plays again or not.
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Because of this, we can probably expect a few things to happen over the coming weeks:
- The beginning of some public statements or other attempts to begin rebuilding Olivera’s public image that has been so tarnished by this assault complaint. To this point, we’ve heard nothing from him since the April 13 incident.
- Since Olivera has team assignment options available, the Braves could activate him on August 2nd and assign him to the low minors – perhaps the GCL – to start getting back into playing shape.
- Since that short-season league would end by September 1st, Olivera would then be freed up to attend to the September hearing… assuming it remains as scheduled.
Beyond that time frame…
On June 2nd, Jon Heyman reported that this assault was said to have been “bad” – and thus the 82-game suspension was in line with that severity.
Other related thoughts:
- Because of both the suspension and that there hasn’t been a public statement of innocence, it is reasonable to conclude that Olivera is essentially admitting guilt to something.
- Because it has been 3 months since the incident with court proceedings still on-going, it is reasonable to believe that there hasn’t been any agreement among the parties for a settlement of some kind. This is a bit surprising, but at the same time, we can’t rule out a future settlement, either.
- It would be surprising as well to have Olivera resume playing – even in the low minors – with this still hanging over his head. Yet this isn’t his decision entirely – any plea deal or (frankly) payoff would obviously directly involve the victim as well.
Regardless, it would seem that this newest court delay at least ‘runs out the clock’ on the season.
I still do not believe that this ends up going to trial – it is a misdemeanor charge, after all (regardless of the severity). For a first-time offender, jail time would thus not be likely even on a conviction.
As a result, if the victim gets some satisfaction out of some form of restitution and perhaps rehabilitation/training for Olivera, then that should normally be sufficient for most people.
PREVIOUS REPORTS
- Arrest Report
- Events Timeline Reconstruction
- Hearing Announcement
- Suspension Announcement
- Personal Rehab Beginning?
Next: The Weekend's Minor League Wrap
We will keep a lookout for additional information as it is made available.