Baseball - Texas Rangers Settle Lawsuit With Fan

The Texas Rangers apologized and paid an undisclosed amount of money to a lady who broke her nose during a brawl between Rangers’ players and fans at the Oakland Coliseum in September 2004.

A brawl broke out outside the Rangers bullpen when reliever Frank Francisco was heckled by Oakland Athletics’ fans. Francisco threw a folding chair into the stands and this chair hit Jennifer Bueno whose nose broke as a result. Her husband, Craig Bueno, was one of the hecklers. The Buenos filed a suit against Francisco, his teammates Doug Brocail and Carlos Almanzar and the Rangers in April 2005 at the county court. The Rangers too, went ahead and filed a lawsuit against Craig Bueno. Rangers’ lawyer, Michael Murphy informed that all lawsuits were dismissed after the settlement was agreed upon. Murphy who declined to discuss the case too much informed that both sides were happy with the outcome. Murphy further stated that the Rangers regretted the incident and had apologized to Jennifer Bueno for the injury she had suffered. Both sides refused to divulge the terms of the settlement. According to Bueno’s lawyer, J Gary Gwilliam, the Buenos were happy at the outcome after both sides were persuaded to settle in a four hour mediation session. As a result of the chair throwing incident, Francisco was suspended for 15 games by MLB and he pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of assault. He was sentenced to 20 days in a work program and anger management classes. None of the other players involved in the brawl were charged or punished by MLB.