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Devin Butler was 'abused and wrongly arrested,' girlfriend says

Gary A. Vasquez / USA TODAY Sports

Haleigh Bailey, the girlfriend of Notre Dame cornerback Devin Butler, has offered her version of the events that led to the senior's arrest and suspension, and it sounds nothing like one documented by police.

"I was there that entire night," Bailey said in a message to Mike Vorel of the South Bend Tribune. "Reports say that everyone left the scene but I was still there and saw everything officers did to Devin.

"He was abused, and wrongly arrested. He never tackled an officer and he never intentionally hurt anyone. He had no reason to be tazed because he was never resisting arrest, and he was already on the ground complying when they tazed him."

Butler was arrested early Saturday morning following an altercation outside a bar. He was charged with felonies for battery of a police officer and resisting law enforcement, but pled not guilty.

In their report, police said Butler shoved a woman during a fight outside the establishment, before throwing himself and his fists at the officer who had ordered him to step back from the incident.

But Bailey said her boyfriend, who's recovering from foot surgery and had been off crutches for only one day, wasn't even in physical condition to fight. Instead, she claims it was the officer who was "extremely violent and excessively forceful" in his treatment of Butler. She said watching the scene unfold was "disturbing to say the least."

Police said there were multiple women involved in the incident, but none of them are identified in documents available to the public.

Meanwhile, a second witness offered a similar story to Bailey's in a phone interview with the publication Wednesday night.

"I don't know who they're trying to reference him hitting or pushing, because he didn't do that to anyone," said Selina Bell, the fiancee of Notre Dame wide receiver Torii Hunter Jr. "But he was holding his girlfriend and protecting her. He 100 percent never hit her, pulled her, pushed her, grabbed her forcefully at all."

Butler was also accused of ripping off an officer's duty belt, but Bailey said that leaves her to wonder how the officer could have tazed Butler if his belt was off.

Butler's attorney, Jeff Kimmell, told the newspaper in an email that "several witnesses to the incident claim that officer (Aaron) Knepper's account of the events is extraordinarily inaccurate."

Notre Dame suspended Butler indefinitely after his arrest. He's scheduled to appear in court Sept. 1.

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