Domestic assault charges against Raptors’ Terence Davis dropped

Raptors guard Terence Davis has had domestic assault charges dropped by the New York District Attorney’s Office this morning. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski is the first to report:

UPDATE: Woj was not entirely right in his reporting. As the Athletic’s Blake Murphy confirmed, not all of the charges were dismissed.

The incident from October, as explained by the NYPD to the Washington Post, involved Davis and his girlfriend getting into an argument at the Beekman Tower hotel on October 27. Davis hit her in the face, then broke her cell phone. Third-degree assault and criminal mischief charges were laid, which qualifies as a misdemeanor in New York.

Of course, we know that this was followed by baffling and disappointing decisions by the Raptors organization. They released a bland statement about supporting the league’s own internal investigation, which hasn’t yielded anything since beginning — and may not ever provide anything of substance.

Then, not only was Davis not punished by sitting out games, he was given endless rotation opportunities on the basketball court (while quietly being served a redemption arc by Raptors broadcasters). It was only this week where his frustrating and sloppy play finally booted him from the rotation, with DeAndre’ Bembry, Matt Thomas, and Yuta Watanabe starting to soak up his minutes. He never paid on court for anything done off-court, something where the Raptors could’ve made a strong statement about their stance on domestic violence; it had to come down to basketball for him to be removed from the games.

And of course, lost in all this is the victim. Anyone who understands domestic violence and the judicial systems in the U.S. and Canada knows that dropped charges don’t equate to the event not happening. We don’t know her side of the story and may never hear it — the narrative has solely been about Davis, and the Raptors had an opportunity to change that. The fact that they didn’t will never stop being disappointing, even (and maybe especially) given today’s news.

I feel like this is also a good place to mention that HQ editor Sean Woodley has generously decided to donate $5 for every game Davis plays this year to The Red Door Family Shelter.

You can support the organization yourself, which provides emergency housing and support to victims of domestic violence, refugee claimants, and families experiencing a housing crisis in Toronto.