Prosecutors in the assault case against Boston Bruins veteran Milan Lucic dropped charges against him on Friday – after filing a request to use the 911 call from the night of the alleged attack.
In court Friday, Assistant District Attorney Samuel Jones called the 911 operator from that call as a witness. Lucic was in the courtroom, but his wife declined to testify, citing her spousal privilege.
The Bruins player was charged with assault following an altercation with his wife on November 18, 2023. It was revealed in court Friday that the call was made while Lucic's wife was in the lobby of their building.
Police said the woman who called, saying “her husband,” tried to strangle her after she claimed he couldn't find his phone.
Lucic allegedly grabbed her by the hair, pulled her back and said, “She wasn't going anywhere.” Officers who responded to the scene said Lucic appeared to be intoxicated.
Lucic's defense argued that the 911 call should be inadmissible because in the time it took her to go downstairs and make the call, she had time to fabricate her statement to the 911 operator.
The defense also said his wife told police that the red marks on her chest were not from Lucic trying to strangle her.
“At this time, the Commonwealth cannot prove the charges against the defendant beyond a reasonable doubt without the victim’s involvement,” the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office wrote in a statement Friday after the trial. “The victim in this matter is out of state and has made it clear that she intends to assert a valid privilege not to testify in court.”
A spokesman for the prosecutor's office said that “this situation is something prosecutors often face when dealing with domestic charges.”
“We treated this case the same as any other case with similar circumstances,” James Borghesani, communications chief for the prosecutor’s office, wrote in a statement Friday.
The hockey forward was arrested last fall on charges of assault and battery on an intimate partner after an incident at his Boston apartment and pleaded not guilty at his arraignment a few days later.
Lucic has since been on an indefinite leave of absence from the team and joined the NHL Player Assistance Program.
At a preliminary hearing on Jan. 19, Lucic's attorney requested a mistrial and waived his client's right to a jury trial.
According to a police report provided to NBC10 Boston by sources, officers responded to Lucic's apartment on Nov. 18 after a woman called 911 saying her husband was trying to choke her.
Police said the woman later identified her husband as Lucic.
According to the police report, Lucic was upset over a cell phone and at one point allegedly grabbed his wife by the hair and pulled her back, telling her she wasn't going anywhere.
Lucic's wife told police that her husband couldn't find his phone the night after he returned to the apartment after a night of drinking. She said he started yelling at her and demanding his phone back because he thought she had hidden it. She told him she didn't have his phone and didn't know where it was. That's when the attack happened.
When the police asked whether Lucic had strangled her, she allegedly replied in the negative.
Officers said Lucic appeared to be drunk and told them “nothing happened” but declined to provide further explanation. He was then arrested.
Police said they saw a broken lamp on one of the nightstands in the apartment and what appeared to be a small amount of broken glass on the floor.
Lucic is a veteran of over 1,300 NHL games with the Bruins, Los Angeles Kings, Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames. He won the Stanley Cup with Boston in 2011 and is back with the team after signing a one-year free agent deal last summer worth $1 million with a possible $500,000 in additional incentives.