Dearborn Man Accused of Fatally Punching Soccer Ref Gets New Judge

A judge scheduled to hear the second-degree murder trial of a Dearborn man accused of fatally sucker-punching a soccer referee has stepped down from the case.

Once a U.S. Olympic team contender in track and field, Wayne County Circuit Judge Cynthia Gray Hathaway cited her long history of involvement in sports when she asked to be recused from the case, WDIV, Channel 4, and the Detroit Free Press report.

She has twice before recused herself from cases involving sports, according to reports.

Bassel Abdul-Amir Saad, 36, is accused of throwing a single punch and killing 44-year-old John Bieniewicz, who was officiating a league soccer game in Livonia.

His trial, now scheduled to be he heard by Wayne County Circuit Judge Thomas Cameron, has been delayed until Feb. 19, 2015.

Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office spokeswoman Maria Miller told the Free Press in an email that Hathaway recused herself because she wants to be sure the defendant has an unbiased judge presiding over the case.”

“She stated that (Saad’s) attorney Cyril Hall represented her in an unspecified matter in the past, that she has a background in sports and had recused herself in the past in cases involving sports figures, and that she viewed a sports event over the weekend and that impacted her ability to hear the present case,” Miller said.

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

A Nov. 21 court date has been set to hear motions, including one in which the prosecution is asking to include as evidence a 2005 police report of Saad’s involvement in a bloody fight at a soccer match in Canton. According to a police report obtained by the Detroit Free Press in a Freedom of Information Act, Saad is accused of striking another soccer player twice in the mouth and five or six times in the back of the head. Police said that after the initial attack, he 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.

Prosecutors also want to include a photograph taken shortly after the fatal attack in Livonia on June 29 that appears to show him raising his middle finger as he prepared to leave in his Jeep. Saad’s attorneys say the photograph is of poor quality, and that he was gesturing to his friends to join him so they could leave.

Cyril Hall, one of Saad’s attorneys, said the second-degree murder charge is inappropriate and has filed motions seeking manslaughter or a lesser charge.

“There’s no way in the world, he would have thought ... by punching this person, he was going to kill him,” Hall told the Free Press Friday. “He didn’t intend that.”

Saad has apologized, saying he didn’t mean to kill Bieniewicz, who lived in Westland with his wife and two children.