INDEPENDENTS

Witnesses say assault never happened, Notre Dame player abused instead

USA TODAY Sports

The girlfriend of Notre Dame cornerback Devin Butler told the South Bend (Ind.) Tribune her boyfriend was "abused, and wrongly arrested," a claim that directly contradicts the police report that said Butler tackled and assaulted an officer.

Notre Dame Fighting Irish wide receiver Chris Brown (left), cornerback Devin Butler (center) and cornerback Cody Riggs leave the field following the game against the Arizona State Sun Devils at Sun Devil Stadium.

Haleigh Bailey, Butler's girlfriend, said she was an eyewitness at the scene and that Butler "never tackled an officer and he never intentionally hurt anyone. He had no reason to be tazed because he was never resisting arrest, and he was already on the ground complying when they tazed him."

Butler entered a plea deal on Wednesday after St. Joseph County prosecutors charged him with two felonies: Resisting law enforcement and battery of a police officer. Notre Dame football coach Brian Kelly indefinitely suspended Butler from the team. His discipline with the school is pending.

Notre Dame's Devin Butler pleads not guilty to felonies for tackling officer

“Reports say that Devin did all of these aggressive things but in reality, he was grabbed by the police from behind and never told who was grabbing him or why they were grabbing him," Bailey told the newspaper. "Devin felt he was doing the right thing but out of nowhere was arrested for simply stopping an argument. He felt he had no reason to be detained. ... Devin has been in a boot/cast and on crutches recovering for the past 8 weeks. He is in no condition to be lifting weights, working out, or doing any ‘tackling.’ I have not seen him run let alone walk on two feet since the day before his surgery in June. I can assure you he did NOT tackle a police officer but police officers tackled HIM."

In the official court documents, police claim Butler shoved a woman by her head in the midst of two women fighting outside of a South Bend bar. It also went on to detail Butler swearing at police and assaulting officer Aaron Knepper by tackling him and ripping off his duty belt.

Selina Bell, fiancee of Irish wide receiver Torii Hunter Jr., also claims to be an eyewitness and vehemently disputed the police report.

“I don’t know who they’re trying to reference him hitting or pushing, because he didn’t do that to anyone," she told the South Bend Tribune. "But he was holding his girlfriend and protecting her. He 100% never hit her, pulled her, pushed her, grabbed her forcefully at all. ... Four cops had their knees in his back, and Haleigh was obviously very upset. She didn’t know why Devin was getting arrested or in this position. She was crying, so I grabbed her face and was telling her to look at me, because I didn’t want her to see what they were doing to him. They tazed him. That’s when I got emotional.

Notre Dame cornerback charged; accused of tackling police officer

“He couldn’t breathe, and I could hear him saying that. He was saying, ‘I can’t breathe! I can’t breathe!’ He was screaming that. That’s when I was getting really nervous. I don’t know why they felt the need to taze him. There were four cops on him. He had the broken foot. His face was in the cement."

Knepper, the officer who Butler is accused of assaulting, has been involved in previous incidents. In August 2012, Knepper was suspended without pay for an incident in which he and two other officers pressured a 7-Eleven clerk to swallow a tablespoon of cinnamon and eat 10 crackers in less than a minute. Humiliated, the clerk filed a lawsuit, claiming the officers violated his civil rights.

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