Oregon State University’s star pitcher, Luke Heimlich, is drawing interest from the Kansas City Royals
The Kansas City Royals are considering the signing of a star college pitcher who as a teen pleaded guilty to molesting his six-year-old niece.
Luke Heimlich, a 22-year-old pitcher for Oregon State University, may soon be a member of the Royals.
‘We continue to seek information that allows us to be comfortable in pursuing Luke,’ Kansas City’s general manager, Dayton Moore, told the Kansas City Star.
While Heimlich appears to have what it takes to be a major league pitcher, teams are wary of signing him because of his past baggage.
Earlier this month, teams declined to draft him because of his guilty plea from 2012.
Last summer on the eve of the NCAA College World Series, The Oregonian revealed that the star pitcher had been convicted of molesting his older brother’s six-year-old daughter when he was 15.
At the time, he was considered to be a high-round pick for the MLB draft, but he wasn’t selected following news of the allegations.
‘We continue to seek information that allows us to be comfortable in pursuing Luke,’ said Kansas City’s general manager, Dayton Moore (above)
Last month, Heimlich broke his silence when he told The New York Times that nothing ever actually happened.
‘I always denied anything ever happened,’ he told The Times.
‘Even after I plead guilty, which was a decision me and my parents thought was the best option to move forward as a family.
‘And after that, even when I was going through counseling and treatment, I maintained my innocence the whole time.’
The girl’s mother, who has remained anonymous to protect the identity of the victim, has a very different story.
‘There is no way he didn’t do it,’ she told The Times, adding that her daughter’s descriptions of the alleged abuse were ‘very specific’.
Last June, the Oregonian wrote: ‘The young victim had reported Heimlich’s abuse to her mother, and the father later contacted authorities, according to a probable cause document filed by prosecutors.
‘The girl told investigators that inside Heimlich’s bedroom, he pulled down her underwear and “touched her on both the inside and outside of the spot she uses to go to the bathroom”,’ according to court records.
It was revealed last year that Heimlich, 22, who is considered one of the nation’s best pitchers, pleaded guilty to molesting his six-year-old niece when he was 15 years old. He is seen above pitching during a college baseball game in Tucson, Arizona in April
‘She said that she told him to stop, but he wouldn’t,’ the documents state, and that ‘it hurt’ when he touched her.
Heimlich was charged with two counts of molestation for incidents between 2009 and 2011.
The victim was four when the abuse first occurred and six at the time of the second.
Heimlich was offered a plea deal, in which he pleaded guilty and in return had one charge dropped and was placed on two years’ probation with court-ordered classes.
He was classified as a Level One sex offender for five years, which is used for perpetrators that are considered to be unlikely to become repeat offenders.
Heimlich also had to write an apology letter to his niece.
In the Times interview in May, Heimlich claimed that he pleaded guilty as a way to have a quicker, lower profile trial that would be easier on his family, implying that his niece would have had to undergo questioning if he hadn’t taken the plea deal.
‘Trials aren’t fun things and, as I said before, it is a delicate situation within a family,’ he said.
‘We didn’t want to do anything to complicate things.’
However, his hopes to keep the case on the down low were crushed last year when he failed to update his location for the state sex offender registry and was issued a police citation.
When reporters caught wind of the citation, they exposed the story.
The court records were unsealed two months after the news first broke and his record was expunged, removing him from the registry.
When the story made national headlines Heimlich left Oregon State’s baseball team to avoid being a distraction.
He declined to comment except for a brief statement in which he said he had taken responsibility for his actions as a teenager.
In the Times interview, he said that he has nothing to say to critics who are calling for him to be removed from the Oregon State team.
‘They can have their opinions of me. Ultimately the people around me know who I am. That is what matters. Everybody else can say what they want,’ he said.
Heimlich claimed that he pleaded guilty as a way to have a quicker, lower profile trial that would be easier on his family, implying that his niece would have had to undergo questioning if he hadn’t taken the plea deal
Despite his past Heimlich said he has been approached by most major league teams including top owners and managers.
The victim’s mother; however, firmly believes that Heimlich should not be able to play ever again, whether it be in college or the pros.
She said her daughter’s case ‘will only go away when Luke is out of the light. If he makes it to the big leagues, he will be in the light forever. Any accomplishment he makes will shine the light on her’.
‘I don’t think he is a terrible person,’ she said. ‘I think he did a terrible thing.’
It is still unclear whether Oregon State officials knew about the case before the news broke last summer.
After the university reviewed the case last year, president Ed Ray issued a statement saying it would ‘welcome all educationally qualified students, including those rehabilitated from past crimes’.
Heimlich’s coach added: ‘He’s a fine young man, and for every second that he has been on this campus, on and off the field, he has been a first-class individual — someone his family should be proud of, our community should be proud of and his team is proud of.’
He was named the Pac-12 Pitcher of the Year for the second straight season.
But he didn’t play in the tournament last season after his arrest was revealed.