Milton Bradley cleared of all charges

Milton Bradley’s attorney released the following statement this afternoon, as reported by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

“The allegations against Milton Bradley were thoroughly investigated by the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office,” the statement read. “Both agencies determined there was no basis to file charges and no charges were filed ... As is customary in domestic cases, the City Attorney’s Office has scheduled a private meeting with Milton and his wife to make sure that this type of misunderstanding does not occur again.”

Domestic violence cases are the very definition of “heat-of-the-moment” situations, and they require quick action by police. They also, however, frequently lead to people cooling down later and either realizing that the situation was not as stark as it first seemed or, in some cases, people backing off their initial stories. We talked about this some yesterday and at the time of Bradley’s arrest, but police officers will tell you that there is no more murky and no more messy a case than a domestic violence case. They’re hard to charge and hard to prove. Sometimes there’s no there there, sometimes there’s no will there.

Whatever went down between Milton Bradley and his estranged wife, it appears to be over now. And while I have no confidence that this will be the last troubling Milton Bradley-related incident, I’m hoping it is.