Ex-Tigers Pitcher Evan Reed Pleads No Contest To Assault; Sex Charges Dropped

DETROIT (WWJ) - Sex assault charges have been dropped against ex-Detroit Tigers pitcher Evan Reed in exchange for a plea on an assault charge stemming from an incident involving a woman in a casino hotel room.

Reed appeared in a Wayne County Circuit Court room Friday morning where he pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of aggravated assault.

Although the charge typically carries a sentence up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine, the plea agreement calls for Reed to serve probation with terms to be set by the judge at a formal sentencing hearing on August 7.

Reed was accused of assaulting a woman in a hotel room at Motor City Casino in March of 2014.

The 45-year-old victim claimed that someone slipped a drug into her drink after she met Reed at a Royal Oak bar the night before Opening Day. In a pre-trial hearing, the woman testified that she blacked out and woke up naked in bed with Reed. On the stand, the woman then offered some unsettling details as to what allegedly happened next.

[Victim Testifies She Woke Up Dizzy, In Pain Following Alleged Attack By Evan Reed]

The 29-year-old Reed admitted, as is seen in a security video shown in court, that he helped carry the woman inside the casino — but he insisted they had consensual sex.

Reed, who now lives in California, was facing two counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct after prosecutors successfully appealed an earlier judge's decision to dismiss the charges. The sex charges carried a 15-year maximum penalty.

In dismissing the charges last fall, Judge Kenneth King said there's no doubt the woman was incapacitated when she entered the hotel with Reed; "The problem is what happened in that hotel room … no one knows," he said.

King pointed out that the woman had lied about little things, like claiming she hadn't known Reed was a Tiger — when a text to a friend showed that she did.

Reed, currently a free agent, appeared in 32 games for Detroit last season and 17 games with Triple-A Toledo.