That sound you hear? It’s the entire San Francisco 49ers organization imploding from within. Just hours after it was reported that both Justin Smith and Patrick Wills were retiring, comes this dandy piece of information.
Fullback Bruce Miller was apparently arrested on spousal battery charges in Santa Clara, California earlier this month.
Here’s the police incident report.
https://twitter.com/dkurtenbach/status/575075384800112640
In what has been an unnerving past year in San Francisco, the arrest of the team’s lead blocker on anything to do with domestic violence charges has to be of concern.
Here’s information on the penal code for Miller’s alleged crime.
The crime of “domestic battery” is one of the more common California domestic violence crimes.
Under California’s domestic battery law, Penal Code 243(e)(1) PC,1 the legal definition of domestic battery is any willful and unlawful touching that is harmful or offensive—and is committed against
the defendant’s spouse or former spouse, the defendant’s cohabitant or former cohabitant, the defendant’s fiancé(e) or former fiancé(e), a person with whom the defendant has or used to have a dating relationship, or the father or mother of the defendant’s child.2
A defendant can be convicted of domestic battery (sometimes known as “spousal battery”) even if the “victim” is not injured in any way. All that’s required is that the defendant use “force” or “violence” against him/her.3
This distinguishes domestic battery from the related domestic violence offense of corporal injury on a spouse, cohabitant, or fellow parent—which requires that the victim suffer some form of physical injury.
Needless to say, San Francisco’s offseason continues to make the organization a laughingstock. It remains to be seen how Miller’s arrest will fall into the league’s new domestic violence policy.
Photo: USA Today