Sexual assault case reinstated against pitcher

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 6:01 p.m. ET

foxsports

DETROIT (AP) -- A judge reinstated a sexual assault case against pitcher Evan Reed on Friday, overturning a decision by another judge who found inconsistencies in the alleged victim's story.

Reed is charged with third-degree criminal sexual conduct. He was playing for the Detroit Tigers last spring when a woman says she was drugged at a bar before Reed took her to a Detroit casino hotel on the eve of Opening Day.

Wayne County Circuit Judge Michael Callahan reinstated the case after hearing an appeal from prosecutors.

It means Reed, 28, will go to trial unless a higher court intervenes. The case was dismissed in 36th District Court, the first stop for all felonies, in August after Judge Kenneth King heard evidence.

Callahan said his job was to decide whether King "abused his discretion" in dismissing the case, not whether Reed was guilty or innocent.

Assistant prosecutor Ana Quiroz went over the evidence for Callahan, saying hotel surveillance video shows the woman "was so incapacitated that she was barely conscious."

Defense attorney Ben Gonek said the woman's version of events didn't add up. She claimed to be ill the next morning, he said, yet walked down six flights of stairs in high heels and passed a police car without seeking help.

Reed, who wasn't in court, insists he had consensual sex with the 45-year-old woman. He is a free agent after playing for the Tigers and Triple-A Toledo last season.

"We fully cooperated with the investigation. He was interrogated for several hours," Gonek said outside of court.