Ex-Astro says police ruined pitching career

Brandon Backe booking mugs from Galveston Police Department show facial injuries in October 2008. Brandon Backe booking mugs from Galveston Police Department show facial injuries in October 2008. Photo: handout email Photo: handout email Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Ex-Astro says police ruined pitching career 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

Brandon Backe's once-promising career as an Astros pitcher took him to the World Series in 2005, but in 2009 his skill had deserted him and he was in constant pain.

Backe, 35, blames the sudden downward spiral of his career on a beating by Galveston police officers in October 2008.

The former pitcher lost his composure in a federal courtroom Tuesday while describing how he can no longer use his right arm for simple tasks like tucking in his shirt or fastening a seat belt.

"You want to be able to hang it up yourself, not let someone else hang it up for you," he said about ending his baseball career. Several times Backe had to wait until he could regain his composure to answer questions by plaintiff's attorney Christopher Porter.

Backe and 11 others say they were brutally beaten when more than 30 Galveston police officers burst into a wedding party at the H2O outdoor bar. Police say the accusations are exaggerated and any force used was justified. Backe is asking a jury of six men and six women to award him between $12 million and $15 million for lost income.

Eleven of the 15 officers being sued along with the city of Galveston sat in uniform across the courtroom from the jury in two rows of chairs behind their attorneys.

Backe beamed with satisfaction when he came to the stand and watched clips from some of his best games, including one where he came off the bench to replace Roger Clemens and pitched a game that got the Astros into the 2004 playoffs.

"That was probably the best game I've ever pitched in my life," he said.

A sports commentator on the video says about Backe's pitching, "This is the stuff dreams are made of."

On the stand, Backe's demeanor changed when he described the night he was beaten. He had just purchased a beer when "I heard a frantic voice saying, 'They got Cole,' " Backe recalled, referring to Cole O'Balle, brother of the bride. "I could tell by the tone of the voice that something wasn't right."

Backe said he ran to the sound and encountered O'Balle face down on the ground and surrounded by police, his face bloody and the prongs from a stun gun stuck in his back. O'Balle was flown by helicopter to a Houston hospital.

Backe said officer Nicholas McDermott "screamed, 'back the f--- up." Backe said he could back up no farther and told the officer, "Chill out, we can't back up. You've got enough room." At that point several officers attacked him, he said, striking him as he fell to the ground and continuing to beat him until his face was bloody. One kicked him in the face, he said.

When he fell, his shoulder struck a concrete curb that separated the sidewalk from a garden. He said officers kept beating him while he was down. "I hit the ground hard and they just got on top of me," he said. Backe contends that this is when he his shoulder was so badly damaged it ended his career.

At first Backe was more concerned about his broken nose and damage to his skull. He thought a persistent pain in his arm would eventually go away, but finally the pain became too great and he underwent surgery.

A large piece of bone that Backe keeps in a jar was removed from his shoulder and seven more pieces were removed in a subsequent operation. He testified that only a blow to the shoulder like the one he suffered at the H2O bar could have caused such an injury.

Finally he had to admit that his career was finished. "I was sick of the pain, sick of taking medication," Backe said. "Finally it came to a breaking point where I couldn't do what I was doing."

Defense attorney William Helfand tried to cast doubt on Backe's testimony, asserting that he blamed the H2O beating for his shoulder problems only after he filed a lawsuit in 2010. Backe countered that he had told his doctor after the operation in 2009.

"It's in your financial interest to be able to describe what happened in a way that makes you look like a victim?" Helfand asked.

He suggested in questioning of a previous witness that Backe's career was on a decline because of injuries unrelated to the H2O incident.

Helfand also tried to discredit a report by baseball agent Bryan Grieper that estimated Backe would have signed a three or four-year contract that would have earned $12 million to $15 million had he not been injured. Grieper's report cited a figure from the Social Security Administration saying Backe's life expectancy was 83, but Helfand produced a Social Security chart saying it was 77.

An economist testified that the five-year difference amounted to about $250,000 in estimated earnings.