Portland Timbers Terminate Andy Polo's Contract Over Abuse Report

PORTLAND, OR — On May 23, 2021, two members of the Portland Timbers administrative staff arrived at the home of midfielder Andy Polo. They were greeted by Deputy Adam Weishaar of the Washington County Sheriff's Office.

Weishaar had arrived after dispatchers had received a 911 call from a friend of Polo's ex-wife, Genessis Alarcon, saying that Polo was hitting Alarcon.He informed the Timbers executives why he was there.

This past Tuesday, Alarcon, who is Peruvian, appeared on a Peruvian talk show where she discussed what happened. If she had not gone public with the allegations, Patch would have stuck to its policy of making abuse victims.

On Wednesday, Major League Soccer suspended Polo.

On Thursday – 260 days, roughly 9 months after Timbers executives learned of the incident – the team terminated Polo's contract.

"We deeply regret not suspending Polo immediately, especially considering the troubling new details of abuse that surfaced this week," the Timbers said in a statement on Thursday.

"It was a failure on our part, and one that will never happen again."

Last year, the Timbers organization got rid of Portland Thorns General Manager Gavin Wilkinson after it was learned he had not taken actions against then-coach Paul Riley after players had complained that they had been sexually harassed by him.

Alarcon told the show that Polo had stopped paying child support and that both she and her children were afraid of him. She also accused the team of protecting him.

"They knew from the beginning," she said in Spanish on the show.

Reports from the Washington County Sheriff's Office back up some of her claims, saying that she "seemed to be frantic, scared and stressed. She was quickly walking around going in and out of the upstairs bedrooms.

"When I looked down the hallway from the staircase, I could see that the master bedroom door was halfway open but something was blocking it as if it was barricaded prior."

Alarcon told the deputy that they'd been arguing for days, that Polo told her that he wanted back everything he'd given her, that he'd grabbed her arm, scratching her, causing what the deputy described as an "abrasion."

The two Timbers executives, the director of security and the manager of players affairs and professional development, then arrived.

The sheriff's office says that the two assured the deputy that they would keep and eye on the situation and keep the peace. They added that if either Genessis or Andy needed to be moved out of they home, they would take care of it.

The deputy was reassured by what he was told and chose not to arrest Polo, giving him a citation instead.

In their statement the team said that they knew about the allegation without mentioning that two of their executives had interacted with a deputy at the scene and provided assurances.

The team end their statement by stating if someone is "experiencing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 or go to thehotline.org. All calls are toll free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages."