Due to ‘insufficient evidence,’ criminal charges related to Charlotte Hornets forward Miles Bridges’ domestic abuse case were dropped on Tuesday, according to court documents.
On October 6, 2023, Bridges was accused of violating a domestic violence protection order, criminal child abuse, and damage to personal property.
The state declared that the prosecutors would “not be successful at trial” in a document filed with Charlotte Mecklenburg County Court. Authorities noted that the woman who accused Bridges provided contradictory accounts of what transpired.
Prosecutor Samantha Pendergrass’s signed court filings stated, “The state would not be successful at trial given the lack of sufficient evidence necessary to overcome the inconsistency of these accounts.”
According to documents filed in Superior Court, upon responding to a complaint, police discovered a woman and her children inside a car that had damage to its windshield. After a few days, she told the police that Bridges was the one who had actually done the damage, contrary to what she had originally told them about another lady at the residence.
Court records state that the woman later admitted to prosecutors that she didn’t know how her automobile was damaged.
Bridges was supposed to respond to those accusations in court on February 20.
Due to the June 2022 domestic abuse case, he missed the entire 2022–2023 NBA season. Bridges was charged with beating his children’s mother in front of them in Los Angeles.
In November 2022, he entered a plea of not guilty to a single felony charge of causing harm to a child’s parent. By doing so, he consented to three years of probation and waived any jail sentence.
As part of the arrangement, the 25-year-old Bridges was also mandated to finish 100 hours of community service, 52 weeks of domestic violence counseling, and 52 weeks of parenting training.
Prior to entering his plea, Bridges was facing three felonies with the possibility of up to 11 years in prison: the one to which he entered a not guilty plea and two more counts of abusing a child in situations that could result in serious physical harm or death.
Bridges was suspended by the league for the first ten games of this season. The NBA determined that 20 of his 30 game suspension had already been served when he was formally suspended for 30 games in April.
Bridges is averaging 20.3 points and 7.6 rebounds per game for the Hornets this season. He will be an unrestricted free agency following the season.
