Look, at minimum, Russell engaged in criminal assault. He didn’t have to “beat her on a regular basis” to be engaged in criminal simple assault. Physical menace—even without hitting/touching—is assault in most jurisdictions when intended to cause fear of harm. He has not denied that he did at least that much, as far as I can tell.
Russell is fortunate he didn’t end up in criminal proceedings in some fashion and Cubs and MLB are doing the right thing by taking this very seriously. It’s not useful to mitigate anything about this situation by enphasizing that he didn’t do something worse.
For all we know the "laid his hands on me" was him physically restraining her after SHE became violent with him, and that is assuming every word of what she has written was true and that she in no way exaggerated. He may still have not "engaged in criminal assault."
You say he is "fortunate he didn’t end up in criminal proceedings in some fashion," but if he engaged in no criminal contact, then not being charged is not "fortunate," it is perfectly appropriate.
Many of you are eager to assume the worst here.
I am not even addressing the issue of whether her comments are the result of being a woman scorned or exaggeration or being a "gold digger" (Dusty's speculation) or having a distorted perception of what happened because she is looking at it all from her perspective.
I am taking everything she has written or been quoted as saying at face value and assuming every word of it to be the absolute truth.... and it is still quite easy to envision circumstances in which, even though everything she has claimed is true, he did nothing remotely close to criminal. For those dismissing that possibility based on the fact that he accepted the suspension, he likely was acting on the advice of counsel, and it is easy to imagine an attorney advising him to let it go to avoid criminal prosecution, even though he did nothing wrong. Domestic violence cases may at one time have been ignored and dismissed, and prosecuting attorney's and juries or judges may once have done nothing, but that has not been the case for about 20 years now (the O.J. case had a huge impact). I have personally seen cases in which a husband was jailed for months awaiting trail when the only allegation against him was A) he tried to walk around his wife in the hallway when he was holding their two-year-old child in his arms and she was trying to block his way (he came into contact with her, but even she said he never pushed her or TRIED to push her out of the way); and B) after he was arrested and forced out of his house and given a no-contact order as a condition of his bond, he was foolish enough to go back home to have dinner with her before trial when she called him and ASKED him to come home to discuss reconciliation.
These cases can get very bad, very fast, even when the guy did not do a damn thing.
Am I saying Russell is a saint?
Of course not. I am simply saying we have no reasonable basis to conclude he has ever been responsible for any physical abuse.