Crime Scenes

Ex-49er Kwame Harris Charged in Domestic Violence Incident at Menlo Park Restaurant

Harris's booking shot.
Harris’s booking shot. Photo: San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office

A fight over soy sauce at a Chinese restaurant turned into a violent dispute between former 49er (and Oakland Raider) Kwame Harris and his ex-boyfriend, Dimitri Geier, and Harris appeared in court yesterday to face felony charges of domestic violence. The incident happened last August at Su Hong restaurant in Menlo Park, as Harris was getting set to drive Geier to the airport, and details of the case have outed Harris, who had not previously been open about his sexuality.

Harris and ex-boyfriend Geier had recently broken up, but were still friends, and the suit alleges that Harris became incensed after Geier “poured soy sauce on a plate of rice,” and then refused to take him to the airport. The two argued and then went outside where Geier was going to remove his luggage from Harris’s car, at which point a fistfight ensued that left Geier severely injured, including a broken orbital bone around his eye. Harris, mind you, is six-foot-seven, and Geier is six-foot-one.

Harris could potentially face seven years in jail, but he is out on bail pending a trial.

There has long been a silence about gay people in professional sports, and there remains no openly gay, active player in the NFL, though some have come out after their football careers were over. For what it’s worth, current Niner tight end Delanie Walker gave a statement to the press today saying of former teammate Harris, “He was a great player. I don’t see him no differently.”

Former 49er charged with attacking ex-boyfriend [San Mateo Daily Journal]
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Ex-49er Kwame Harris Charged in Domestic Violence Incident at Menlo Park