The Clark County D.A.’s Office has doubled up on the charges against Nick Diaz.
Nick Diaz is a long, long way from the octagon. Diaz, of course, was arrested and charged with domestic violence offenses several weeks ago. After fighting off a change in his bail conditions a few weeks back, Diaz has another hurdle to contend with: on Tuesday, the Clark County District Attorney’s Office laid two additional felony charges against the fighter.
In a statement to Cageside Press Wednesday, the Clark County DA’s media rep said that the new charges were “due to additional information received.” The new information and new charges, the D.A.’s office confirmed, were all stemming from the original incident.
The original criminal complaint against Diaz, stemming from an altercation with a female acquaintance claiming to be the fighter’s on-again, off-again girlfriend, had a single count of Battery Constituting Domestic Violence-Strangulation and one count Battery Constituting Domestic Violence. The amended criminal complaint has two counts of Battery Constituting Domestic Violence-Strangulation, one count Battery Constituting Domestic Violence and one count Battery Resulting in Substantial Bodily Harm Constituting Domestic Violence.
In a statement to MMA Junkie, Diaz’s attorney Ross Goodman said that “We were surprised that the state filed an amended complaint in court this morning given that there is no new evidence that would warrant adding charges. Regardless, we are confident that that truth will come to light vindicating Mr. Diaz after a thorough cross-examination exposing (the alleged victim’s) inconsistent and contradictory allegations.” (via MMA Junkie). Goodman requested a continuance to review the new charges.
The case has been pushed back to July 31 as a result. All this means that despite Nick Diaz teasing a return to action it could be a while before we see him in the octagon again.
UPDATE July 12, 7:45PM ET — per the Amended Complaint against Nick Diaz, received by Cageside Press, the Battery Resulting in Substantial Bodily Harm Constituting Domestic Violence charge stems from “forcing [the victim’s] body into the side of the pool.” In the original complaint, this appears to have resulted in a hip injury to the victim. For the charge of Battery Constituting Domestic Violence Charge, that stems from “striking [the victim’s] head on the ground and/or by pushing her to the ground.”
