The trouble-free portion of Albert Belle’s tenure with the White Sox came to an end Sunday night when he was arrested on charges of domestic battery, interfering with the reporting of a domestic battery and criminal damage to property, all misdemeanors, after an incident at the Alsip home of a former girlfriend.
Belle was released from the Alsip police station after posting $100 bond but was ordered to appear in court in Bridgeview Monday after the woman, 24-year-old Stephanie Bugusky, filed for an order of protection. Judge Richard La Cien granted the order, barring the White Sox left-fielder from any contact with Bugusky, and ordered him back to court on Aug. 10. He was freed on $3,000 bond.
Bugusky said she’d been in a relationship with Belle for approximately 10 months but tried to break it off over the last month because they had “grown apart.”
In court, she testified that hours after the White Sox’s 8-1 victory Sunday over Cleveland, Belle confronted her inside her Alsip townhome. He grabbed her by the arm, punched her in the back, knocked her to the floor, then struck her again when she tried to get up, Bugusky said. She would not say why they were fighting.
She also alleged that he tried to restrain her when she attempted to call 911 and then ripped the telephone cord out of the wall. She said Belle damaged her cellular phone when she attempted to use it to call police, and that he damaged a sliding glass door in the townhome.
Belle had a history of violent incidents on and off the field when he played in Cleveland, but his 1 1/2-year tenure with the White Sox has been relatively tranquil. The arrest comes with Belle in one of the hottest batting streaks of his career; he was named American League player of the week for the second successive week Monday and had hit .426 with 10 home runs and 20 RBIs in the Sox’s first 12 games after the All-Star break.
Belle, in a taupe-colored suit, blue shirt and colorful tie, appeared in court with attorneys Nick Zagotta and Jay O’Brien, who declined comment before whisking him away in a silver-gray Mercedes after the brief hearing.
Zagotta later issued a statement that said Belle “has assured me there is no merit to the charges brought against him. . . . We are confident that he will be vindicated. We have been co-operating with the authorities and will continue to do so.”
Judge Le Cien’s order does not prohibit Belle from traveling with the Sox or visiting his family in Ohio.
The judge refused a defense request to bar Bugusky, who described herself as an avid White Sox fan, from Comiskey Park, saying she can attend Sox games if she chooses. But he ordered her to avoid the clubhouse area, where she is most likely to encounter Belle.
Belle was in the lineup for Monday night’s 5-4 loss to Cleveland, arriving at the ballpark around 4:50 p.m. He didn’t speak with the media, other than to ask a TV reporter if she was there to there to interview him about his 300th career home run, which he hit Friday night.
When Belle’s picture came on the big-screen TV in the clubhouse, players stopped their card games and looked toward the tube. One player turned down the music and turned up the TV volume. Teammates listened intently and watched a tape of Belle leaving the courthouse.
Manager Jerry Manuel said he had no trouble putting Belle in the lineup. “Not at all. Albert has had a lot of different controversies, but he’s been able to overcome them. I don’t see this bothering him or the team. He’s a guy who appears to deal with controversies. When people boo him, he’s able to block that out and focus on the task at hand. He feeds off the reactions to him and rises to the situation.”
As for the charges Belle faces, Manuel had no reaction: “I don’t know what went on. I’ll have to see the cards on the table before I make a comment.”
Teammate Robin Ventura said the incident wasn’t likely to affect the team. “It’s separate,” he said. “You hope it’s false, but you think about him and trying to help him, whether he did it or not.”
At about the same time Belle arrived at Comiskey, Bugusky returned to her townhome to watch television accounts of her ordeal. Pictures of her and Belle were displayed throughout the living room. She groaned when one news anchor mispronounced her name and got her age wrong, saying she was 25.
She met Belle at a Sox game last September. “He sent a clubhouse guy over to get my number,” she said. To her knowledge, they dated each other exclusively over the last 10 months. She made occasional trips with Belle and visited him in Tucson during spring training.
They got along well for the most part, she said, seeing each other almost daily, but she told him she wanted to end the relationship about a month ago because she believed they had “grown apart.” He continued to call her “10 to 15 times a day,” she said.
“You fall out of love with someone. When Albert Belle is around, you have to do things Albert Belle’s way. I did things Albert Belle’s way for 10 months. I told him I didn’t want to see him anymore. He’s known that for a month.”
She said Sunday night was the first time Belle had ever been physically abusive to her–“We don’t fight a lot at all”–but she declined to specify what set him off. “What I said in court is all I have to say.”
She said she was “a little sore, but I’ll be all right,” and she has no plans to try to patch things up. “I don’t foresee myself and Mr. Belle conversing any longer.”
Is she afraid of him? “Obviously, I got the order of protection. That speaks for itself.”
