Kings Defenseman Slava Voynov Suspended After Arrest in South Bay

Originally posted at 9:22 a.m. Oct. 20, 2014. Edited with new details and to add a photo.

Los Angeles Kings player Slava Voynov was arrested today on suspicion of domestic violence and suspended indefinitely by the National Hockey League.

The arrest of Voynov, 24, was initially announced by the NHL, which said he will continue to be paid while on suspension.

According to Redondo Beach Lt. Joe Hoffman, Voynov -- whose first name is Viatcheslav -- was booked on suspicion of domestic violence and he was released about 9 a.m. on $50,000 bail. He was tentatively scheduled to appear in court Dec. 1 in Torrance, Hoffman said.

Voynov was arrested by Redondo Beach police at Little Company of Mary Hospital in Torrance, where he was with a woman who was being treated there for unspecified injuries, Hoffman said.

“Last night at approximately 11:25 p.m., Redondo Beach police officers responded to a call of a possible family fight at a residence in the area of the 800 block of Avenue C, located in the city of Redondo Beach,” Hoffman said.

“The call was received on a non-emergency business line, with the caller reporting that a female could be heard screaming for the past 20 minutes, and could now be heard crying,” Hoffman said.

Officers went to the neighborhood and spoke with the person who had called police, and the investigation focused on a house as the probable origin of the woman’s screams, Hoffman said.

“The officers were unable to contact the female or anyone else at the residence, and received information that the female may have left in a vehicle prior to the officers’ arriving,” Hoffman said.

Then, about 1 a.m., police received a call from the Torrance Police Department “concerning an adult female being treated in the Little Company of Mary Hospital emergency room for injuries that were possibly received during a domestic violence incident that had occurred earlier in the city of Redondo Beach,” Hoffman said.

“Redondo Beach police officers responded to the hospital and met with the victim, determining that a domestic violence incident did occur in Redondo Beach,” Hoffman said.

The officers then arrested Voynov, who was also at the hospital, Hoffman said.

Hoffman said Torrance police had first been notified by a nurse at the hospital.

“Nurses are mandated reporters,” he told ABC7. “And when the victim was at the hospital in the emergency room being treated, the nature of the injury immediately alarmed the nurse, to the point where she notified the Torrance Police Department, because the hospital is located in the city of Torrance.”

A child may have been in the home at the time of the violence, Hoffman said, without elaborating.

Voynov is on paid suspension. His contract “provides that, during the pendency of a criminal investigation, ‘the league may suspend the player pending the league’s formal review and disposition of the matter where the failure to suspend the player during this period would create a substantial risk of material harm to the legitimate interests and/or reputation of the league,”’ according to the NHL.

Voynov is from Chelyabinsk, Russia.

In a statement, the L.A. Kings said: “These developments are of great concern to our organization. We support the NHL’s decision to suspend Slava Voynov indefinitely during this process, and we will continue to take appropriate action as the legal proceedings and the investigation by the NHL take their course.”

Voynov’s arrest came amid heightened scrutiny of the handling of professional athletes accused of domestic violence.

The National Football League has come under fire for initially handing just a short suspension to former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice, who was caught on security video knocking out his then-fiancee in an Atlantic City casino elevator. Rice was later suspended indefinitely.

--City News Service

PHOTO Slava Voynov booking photo. Courtesy the Redondo Beach Police Department.

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