Frank Clark's Police Report (For Off Field Discussion)

[Pick6]

Hotel manager was threatened by Frank Clark. "I will hit you like I hit her." Doesn't help that the manager is also a women.
http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-new ... irlfriend/

 

[Tech Worlds]

I don't believe he said any such thing. I just seams too over the top. Who would say that?

This is just people looking to get their name in the paper and the Seattle times running with it in an effort to piss on sports teams as they always have.

 

[hawknation2015]

A hotel night manager told police in Ohio that Seahawks top draft pick Frank Clark threatened her and admitted hitting his girlfriend during a Nov. 15 altercation, according to newly released documents.

In a statement to police in Sandusky, Ohio, the day after the incident, manager Stephanie Burkhardt wrote that soon after she entered the couple’s hotel room Clark told her, “I will hit you like I hit her” and shouldered her out of the way before leaving. The documents, obtained by The Seattle Times via public-records request, supplement the initial police report.

Reached by The Times via telephone Friday, Burkhardt repeated what she said Clark had told her.

“Yes, he said it,’’ she said. “I would never lie about something like that.’’

Burkhardt told police that she asked Clark to stay in the room until the police came. “Frank was putting his shoes on at the end of the bed and told me not to (expletive) talk to him …’’ her statement said. “On his way out of the room he told me he would hit me like he hit her as well as he shoulder checked me.’’

Hurt told responding officers that night she was “punched in the face” by Clark. Her two younger brothers also told police she was punched, according to the report.

 

[Hawkfan77]

So the seattle times keeps posting basically the exact same article? Everyday? Sounds about right, it's what they do. How excited do you think paper was when the Hawks drafted Clark? I bet they threw a little party

 

[AgentDib]

Media scorn isn't a relevant, or new concern. Remember the ridiculous letter the Seattle Times printed from an obnoxious 49er fan a couple of years ago? This issue is just an opportunity for easy pandering to their main demographic which would rather have tickets to the Met than the Clink. It's also a convenient issue to grandstand about on social media and show off how morally superior you are to others. The latter may be a benefit as social pressure is the primary method of influencing behaviors.

Where do you draw the line?

there's a reason for trials, to do our best to bring about the truth.

Our legal system exists to draw that line and we have over a million lawyers in the US bickering over the finer points of line drawing. Frank Clark's case was heard and judged by those with more information than any of the third party spectators now. The notion that he needs to also face charges in the court of public opinion is Internet vigilantism, no matter how well-intentioned.

 

[dumbrabbit]

Where was all the Seattle times coverage on Bruce Irvin when he was drafted? Didn't Irvin have a troubled past too? I saw some backlash of the pick but certainly not as much as the Frank Clark selection.

 

[HawkFan72]

Great. Now that Florio is on the trail of this story, it will never die. It will be mentioned in every Seahawks article from here to the end of time.

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.co...ings-even-worse-for-the-seahawks-frank-clark/

 

[Shadowhawk]

And of course Mike Florio is piling on over at PFT. Go find it if you want to take a look; I won't link to it.

This is a serious matter and it deserves serious consideration, but Florio is just indulging in his usual hackery and I'm not very impressed with Baker's article either, which glosses over two key points:

1) Stephanie Burkhardt, per the article published on Tuesday, was "immediately feared for Hurt’s safety." (http://www.seattletimes.com/sports/seah ... -batterer/) Yet per Baker's article today, she says she "forgot to tell police because she was too exhausted and preoccupied with how Hurt and her siblings were doing." She's worried about how Hurt and her siblings are doing and is afraid for her safety, yet she FORGOT to tell the police that he allegedly admitted hitting his girlfriend and threatened her? I asked Baker about that on Facebook and his response was that it was the prosecutor's job to look into this discrepancy. But how do you FORGET to tell the police that he threatened you and admitting hitting the woman whose safety you say you fear for?

2) Ms. Burkhardt was interviewed by the Seattle Times per the Tuesday article and never mentioned this. She said she was did not mention it the first time "of anxiety and fear of retaliation." Fair enough, but she did mention in Tuesday's article how he "shouldered her out of the way" and that if the Seahawks asked her she would have definitively said "that he beat her up." She was willing to have this information included in the first article. That doesn't sound like someone who was afraid of retaliation, even if (as Baker said in his Facebook post) she was "leery" of having it included.

 

[Hawkfan77]

How excited do you think Baker is that his "article" is now being posted on PFT? Baker would fit in perfectly with Florio over there on their tabloid sports site.

 

[Shadowhawk]

How excited do you think Baker is that his "article" is now being posted on PFT? Baker would fit in perfectly with Florio over there on their tabloid sports site.

Geoff Baker has really disappointed me. As for PFT, I am just done with that site. They have some good writers over there that I will miss but Mike Florio is a dishonest hack and I've had it with the drivel he posts.

 

[drdiags]

After the media has re-tried the case in the court of public opinion, the real emphasis of all this is whether the Seahawks botched their background check or not. I still don't understand how sports and non-sport professions are supposed to handle people who have had DV type issues in the past.

This shouldn't be just a sports thing. If these folks are really sincere about cleaning up DV, any person seeking employment anywhere in the country should have the same level of scrutiny, same with folks already holding jobs in the public and private sector. Reduced charges or not.

Why aren't folks up in arms about actors or politicians or any profession that have these same type of folks making a living? Cops, beating wives or threatening them requiring a restraining order, should be off the job. Mailman or woman found guilty of assault, leave the country because you can no longer hold a job.

Anyway, the media can criticize the Seahawks for their "intensive investigation" but at some point re-hashing the Clark incident for even more examples of incompetence reaches the "we get it" level. Would not surprise me if 10% of those spewing disdain on the social media have skeletons in their closet.

 

[Hawkfan77]

After the media has re-tried the case in the court of public opinion, the real emphasis of all this is whether the Seahawks botched their background check or not. I still don't understand how sports and non-sport professions are supposed to handle people who have had DV type issues in the past.

This shouldn't be just a sports thing. If these folks are really sincere about cleaning up DV, any person seeking employment anywhere in the country should have the same level of scrutiny, same with folks already holding jobs in the public and private sector. Reduced charges or not.

Why aren't folks up in arms about actors or politicians or any profession that have these same type of folks making a living? Cops, beating wives or threatening them requiring a restraining order, should be off the job. Mailman or woman found guilty of assault, leave the country because you can no longer hold a job.

Anyway, the media can criticize the Seahawks for their "intensive investigation" but at some point re-hashing the Clark incident for even more examples of incompetence reaches the "we get it" level. Would not surprise me if 10% of those spewing disdain on the social media have skeletons in their closet.

The media and it's members don't actually care about the issue though. They care about selling papers and selling ads and the best way to do that is to print and talk about issues that are sensationalized. They don't care about battered women, they care about an athlete hitting a woman because they can sell more papers talking about individual actions rather than real issues.

 

[TheWebHead]

No matter what anyone thinks about the truthfulness of anyone and everyone in this hotel incident, many lessons are being learned around the league in potential risks and blowback of drafting a player like Clark, and I would guess that the draft stock of such players in the future has been further damaged.

I think teams will be more concerned with domestic violence events that happen in hotels, apartment complexes, dorms, etc, where there's a potential for many witnesses. I think teams will be more skeptical of players and prosecutors if a case is plead down. I think teams will avoid claiming to know what a player did or didn't do in a domestic violence incident because no matter what the player or prosecutor or police has to say, only the people directly involved or eyewitnesses know for certain.

Most importantly, the NFL itself would be better equipped to do a deep dive into these cases for draft eligible players, if only to avoid redundancy of information requests and to involve experts in the field, rather than GMs of individual teams, who are football evaluators, not criminal investigators or specialize in certain types of criminal activity.

 

[dumbrabbit]

I just read that article by Geoff Baker.

The entire article is based on the "he said" or "she said" crap. Give me cold, hard, facts about the case, not what someone else heard someone say. Clark went through the legal system and was found not guilty, and that is good enough for me.

And why should the Seahawks interview anyone else but the police and prosecutors? They know that witnesses cannot be reliable.

 

[Scottemojo]

What the TImes did today was intended to refute anything the DA said that made the Hawks look good. It is a rebuttal piece, but not labeled as such.

 

[chris98251]

Well If the hotel clerk had heard that why didn't it come up at the time, and if Frank did say that was it truth or sarcasm based on his accuser at the time with the police, he is young and if that clerk was barring his way and he shoulder past her then she was dumb trying to restrain his passing anyway.

Sometimes stuff comes out of your mouth and the context is skewed.

Again the situation and none of us being there we can't pass judgment on a situation where there doesn't seem to be a single story. Johnny come latey's to it like this are suspect.

 

[kearly]

OK. So no second chance for Rice is something we agree upon then. Because he very very clearly is a batterer, no matter what his wife teamed up with lawyers and professional writers says in a very calculated letter.

I consider a batterer to be a guy that hits a woman habitually without provocation. Multiple offenses. A guy that needs to hit a woman on a regular basis to feel good about himself and to keep her self-esteem low. That's not what Rice is. Rice is a guy that lost his cool and did something really dumb after his then fiasce swung at him and spit in his face. That's a one time mistake and can be corrected with proper attention and counseling. Janay and Ray Rice have been together since high school, all evidence points to this being the first and only incident in a long term relationship.

 

[kearly]

Hotel manager was threatened by Frank Clark. "I will hit you like I hit her." Doesn't help that the manager is also a women.
http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-new ... irlfriend/

It's her word against his, which makes for a better headline than actual evidence. It is really odd though that she was never contacted by the prosecutor.

Regardless, this latest development will put John Schneider in a tough spot. He should have had his people talk to everyone, not just the NFL or the DA. It seemed like who the Hawks talked to and didn't talk to was strategic, much like Roger Goodell's strategic decision to not watch the Ray Rice video. (We all know he watched it.)

JS also should have played the 2nd chances angle instead of the somewhat disingenuous "we don't hire people who hit women" angle. Now he just looks like a guy that might be breaking his own rules. If ever there is irrefutable proof that Clark hit her, JS has basically put himself in a position where he might have to cut Clark to save face.

I hope he holds firm, but he did not play his cards well here.

 

[MattA16]

I don't post here often, but this is an issue that I believe is worth commenting on...

I find it quite shocking that there are so many Seahawks fans both within and outside of this thread that either truly believe Frank Clark did not hit his girlfriend, or that it was somehow the woman's fault because she "bit his nose" or "threw a TV remote at him". The evidence is quite overwhelming that Frank physically assaulted his girlfriend, through the police reports, the witness claims (including the most recent hotel staff witness report), the plea bargain, etc. It is SO CLEAR that everyone here is trying to fool themselves into somehow truly believing that he did not physically assault his girlfriend, or that he was "defending" himself because his 250 pound frame was in so much danger that he had to grab her clothes so hard that it caused bruising on her neck. If you believe this BS, you are either incredibly unintelligent or you have successfully convinced yourself that theres no way your favourite team would draft a man who committed a crime that got Ray Rice, Greg Hardy, and others suspended for significant periods of time.

The front office knew he hit her. John Schneider and Pete Carroll knew he hit her. But they also knew one other thing: By drafting him, they knew they were getting a first round pass rusher late in the second round. This is a business folks. JS will stand in front of that podium all day long and preach that they were "certain" he never hit her, and he will never be disputed because no one can truly prove him wrong. Assuming nothing else pops up, people will forget about his incidents once the season is underway and if he performs on the field, JS and PC did exactly what they wanted to do.

Lets move on from debating whether or not the violence took place, it happened and that is frankly (no pun intended) undeniable. If you want to come out and say "he did something wrong, but he paid the price given to him by the NCAA and the justice system, so lets give him another chance" then fine. I think DV is one of the most serious crimes that one can commit, and I know the lasting mental damage it can have on an individual. If there's any silver lining of these DV issues in the NFL, its that it is raising awareness and understanding of the seriousness of such an act. However, I also believe in second chances and that people should be allowed to move on from their mistakes. It just disturbs me that people are trying to defend him/blame the girlfriend or outright deny anything took place. It is disturbing and while I hope the best for Frank Clark's career and the Seahawks, I believe everyone should be ashamed of themselves for how the situation has been handled, from Frank Clark himself, to the justice system, to the NFL, to PC and JS and the rest of the Seahawks management, and from the fans.

 

[kearly]

I don't post here often, but this is an issue that I believe is worth commenting on...

I find it quite shocking that there are so many Seahawks fans both within and outside of this thread that either truly believe Frank Clark did not hit his girlfriend, or that it was somehow the woman's fault because she "bit his nose" or "threw a TV remote at him". The evidence is quite overwhelming that Frank physically assaulted his girlfriend, through the police reports, the witness claims (including the most recent hotel staff witness report), the plea bargain, etc. It is SO CLEAR that everyone here is trying to fool themselves into somehow truly believing that he did not physically assault his girlfriend, or that he was "defending" himself because his 250 pound frame was in so much danger that he had to grab her clothes so hard that it caused bruising on her neck. If you believe this BS, you are either incredibly unintelligent or you have successfully convinced yourself that theres no way your favourite team would draft a man who committed a crime that got Ray Rice, Greg Hardy, and others suspended for significant periods of time.

The front office knew he hit her. John Schneider and Pete Carroll knew he hit her. But they also knew one other thing: By drafting him, they knew they were getting a first round pass rusher late in the second round. This is a business folks. JS will stand in front of that podium all day long and preach that they were "certain" he never hit her, and he will never be disputed because no one can truly prove him wrong. Assuming nothing else pops up, people will forget about his incidents once the season is underway and if he performs on the field, JS and PC did exactly what they wanted to do.

Lets move on from debating whether or not the violence took place, it happened and that is frankly (no pun intended) undeniable. If you want to come out and say "he did something wrong, but he paid the price given to him by the NCAA and the justice system, so lets give him another chance" then fine. I think DV is one of the most serious crimes that one can commit, and I know the lasting mental damage it can have on an individual. If there's any silver lining of these DV issues in the NFL, its that it is raising awareness and understanding of the seriousness of such an act. However, I also believe in second chances and that people should be allowed to move on from their mistakes. It just disturbs me that people are trying to defend him/blame the girlfriend or outright deny anything took place. It is disturbing and while I hope the best for Frank Clark's career and the Seahawks, I believe everyone should be ashamed of themselves for how the situation has been handled, from Frank Clark himself, to the justice system, to the NFL, to PC and JS and the rest of the Seahawks management, and from the fans.

The female prosecutor didn't think he hit her. People that have done their homework have found that Clark's story checks out.

Investigations by other NFL teams found the same thing. The NFL's league investigation found the same thing. The DA felt the same way. The prosecutor felt the same way.