Prosecutors Want 2005 Report of Soccer Fight in Trial of Man Accused of Fatally Punching Soccer Ref

Bassel Abdul-Amir Saad, 36, of Dearborn remains in the Wayne County Jail awaiting trial on second-degree murder.

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A 2005 police report of a bloody fight at a soccer match could be introduced as evidence in the second-degree murder trial of a Michigan man accused of throwing a fatal punch at soccer referee John Bieniewicz last June.

Prosecutors want to include a police report about another soccer match fight in the evidence against Bassel Abdul-Amir Saad, 36, of Dearborn, the Detroit Free Press reports. The defense wants to keep details of the alleged assault out of evidence to be presented to jurors, as it was in the preliminary examination.

The Free Press obtained the 2005 police report under the Freedom of Information Act. According to Canton police officers at the time, Saad is accused of striking another soccer player twice in the mouth and five or six times in the back of the head, then put down a child he was carrying and hit the man “extremely hard” in the back of the head one more time, causing him to fall to the floor of the indoor soccer complex.

When the fight was over, the victim had a large lump on the back of his head, a cut on the inside of his mouth and a scratch on his neck. Saad allegedly punched another player who tried to break up the fight in the nose.

He pleaded no contest to attempted assault and battery, a misdemeanor, in January, and was ordered to serve five days of community service and placed on probation for 12 months.

Bieniewicz’s widow told the Free Press last month her “Jaw hit the floor” when she learned the altercation that killed her husband wasn’t the first time Saad allegedly lost his temper during a soccer match.

“It blew my mind that this wasn’t the first time that he attacked somebody on a soccer field,” Kris Bieniewicz said.

Attorneys will argue whether the 2005 police report should be part of the evidence in a hearing before Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Cynthia Gray Hathaway next month. Saad’s trial is scheduled to begin Dec. 8.

Related:

• Rec League Soccer Ref in Critical Condition After ‘Terrifying’ Assault
• Michigan Soccer Ref Declared Dead After ‘Terrifying’ Assault by Player
• Global Response to Lethal Attack on Soccer Ref: ‘Why?’
• Saad, Accused in Soccer Ref’s Death, Bound Over for Trial