From NBC Sports:
Police say Oakland Athletics catcher Bruce Maxwell showed signs of intoxication when he was arrested following accusations that he pointed a handgun at the head of a woman in Scottsdale who had delivered food to his home.
Court records released Monday provide more details on his arrest, but don’t offer an explanation for why he allegedly pointed the gun at the driver. Scottsdale police declined to comment on what prompted Maxwell to allegedly answer the door with a gun on Saturday evening.
The documents show Maxwell denied pointing a gun at the driver.
The court documents say once the driver explained why she was there, Maxwell lowered the gun.
The driver became frightened, handed the food over to Maxwell at the doorstep and left.
When officers arrived there, they say Maxwell had alcohol on his breath, showed signs of intoxication, often yelled during the police encounter and made anti-police statements.
Maxwell was booked on suspicion of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and disorderly conduct.
Maxwell’s attorney Michael Kimerer said during an initial court appearance that his client “has never really had any kind of criminal activity before in his life.”
The A’s have previously said the team was disappointed by the allegations and is taking the investigation seriously.
The 26-year-old Maxwell hit .237 with three home runs and 22 RBIs in 76 games this season. He was projected to be Oakland’s starting catcher next year.
Maxwell was the only player in Major League Baseball to take a knee this year during the national anthem to protest racial injustice.
Maxwell recently claimed he was targeted at a restaurant for his protest. However, the waiter has an entirely different story.
From Fox News:
“He is outright lying. This is really upsetting as he was given full service, I didn’t even know who Bruce Maxwell was,” Matt Henry, a 42-year-old waiter at Keegan’s Public House, told Fox News. “This all started because I carded his friend who wanted to order a beer.”
According to Henry, an Alabama native, Maxwell was dining with local Democratic councilman Devyn Keith and another friend who produced an expired ID, and the server refused to serve him a drink — which upset the friend, who followed him into the kitchen.
“He asked me, ‘Don’t you know who Bruce Maxwell is?’, and told me I was making everyone feel uncomfortable. Nobody was even paying attention to them,” Henry claimed.
“I didn’t know anything about him or the kneeling. All I know is a friend of mine 15 years ago lost his job for serving someone a drink who happened to be underage, so if anyone looks under 30, I’m going to card them.”
The waiter said that the councilman then complained to the restaurant’s manager about Maxwell being uncomfortable, and the manager simply swapped me to anothertable, and that it was “no big deal.”
The restaurant manager on duty that day, Anne Whalen — who requested the restaurant name not be used without permission from the owner — also told Fox News that Maxwell’s story being portrayed in the media could not be further from the truth.
“Matt came to me and told me that a guy wanted a beer but his ID was not valid and I told him he absolutely could not give it to him, we can go to jail for that in the state of Alabama,” the manager said.
“It was his friend causing all the fuss, none of us even knew who this baseball player was. I told him I had no idea who he was going on about,” she said. “Eventually Matt just asked if we could put another server on the table so I did. … I can’t believe the story.”
Whalen said that of the three men, Maxwell was the only one who produced a valid ID and thus was the only one they served a beer to.
However, Maxwell told TMZ Sports this week — and headlines since have spanned the globe — that the waiter said to him, “You’re the guy who took the knee?” After confirming he was, Maxwell alleged that the waiter then responded, “I voted for Trump, and I stand for everything he stands for,” and then refused to serve him.
This allegedly prompted the councilman, who is a high school friend and is African-American, to approach the restaurant’s manager who then mitigated the situation by putting another waiter on their table.
“We didn’t even discuss Trump. I was working two jobs, I don’t have time for rallies,” Henry continued. “If this all happened a month ago, why suddenly now is he claiming all this now?”
Henry also noted that Maxwell was very polite during the meal, never raising any eyebrows. Whalen said that the men happily paid their bill without objection and left after their meal.
A spokesperson for the Oakland A’s told Fox News that the club has no comment, and that Maxwell stands by his story and is not doing further interviews at this time.
A representative for Keith did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Keith previously told the Washington Post that the whole incident was “an embarrassment.”
Maxwell’s account of the incident is dubious at best, especially considering he waited a month to make the claims.
It also seems doubtful restaurant employees in Alabama would recognize the Oakland Athletics’ backup catcher immediately, deny him service, and suffer zero backlash or pressure.
Maxwell and Representative Keith seem to be in a hurry to distance themselves from the restaurant incident, but Maxwell still has a lot of questions to answer about his gun charge.