Michael Fuller, the attorney for the estranged wife of Andy Polo, said the Portland Timbers pressured his client not to press domestic violence charges against her husband.
Fuller released an audio recording that he says is of a Timbers representative attempting to convince Genessis Alarcon not to file the charges against Polo.
According to a report from the Washington County (Oregon) Sheriff’s Department, on May 23, 2021, Polo was “issued a citation in lieu of arrest for harassment after grabbing onto [Alarcon’s] wrist.” The citation is classified as a B misdemeanor. The Timbers terminated Polo’s contract on Feb. 10, a day after suspending him.
In an exclusive interview with ESPN, Alarcon said that around two weeks later, Jim McCausland, the Timbers’ head of security, and an unidentified female representative from the Timbers visited Alarcon at the home she shared with Polo to discuss the case. In the recording, which Fuller posted on Twitter, a female voice is speaking to a person believed to be Alarcon.
The person, with the help of an interpreter, explains the charges against Polo. After explaining it will be up to Alarcon as to whether she will press charges, the purported Timbers representative said: “Of course, we’re hoping you say no, you do not [want to press charges].”
In another recorded excerpt, obtained by ESPN, the purported Timbers representative told Alarcon that she would have to testify in front of a judge or jury at a trial that could last as long as two days. Nowhere in the excerpt does it mention the possibility that Polo could enter a plea and avoid a trial.
The release of the recording comes one day after Alarcon was interviewed by a law firm Major League Soccer has retained to investigate the Timbers’ handling of the domestic violence case. In his tweet, Fuller indicated that he has turned over “all our files” to MLS investigators, and to local station KATU.
Asked to comment about the recording, a Timbers spokesperson said via text message that the organization “will decline further comment until the MLS review is complete.”
The release of the recording appears to bolster claims Alarcon made previously to ESPN. Alarcon told ESPN that during the aforementioned meeting with the two Timbers representatives, they told her they would make sure that she and her two children would be housed and fed, but that it was understood that this would be done in exchange for her not pursuing a criminal case against Polo.
“They were going to help me, and make sure me and my kids didn’t get left on the street,” Alarcon told ESPN with the help of an interpreter. “They were going to make sure that Andy was going to be responsible for me and my kids, but it never happened. I was told this would be in exchange for not pressing charges.”
Alarcon later added through her attorney, Fuller, that she didn’t intend to press charges — though the Timbers didn’t yet know that — because she “didn’t want to negatively impact the children.”
In response to the allegations Alarcon made in her interview with ESPN, the Timbers issued a denial Wednesday night: “While the Timbers offered support to Mr. Polo, Ms. Alarcon and their children during a difficult time, there was never any suggestion — expressly or implicitly — that the support was offered in exchange for consideration by Ms. Alarcon. The Timbers would never condone or participate in such conduct.”
The recording would appear to undercut the Timbers’ statement.
Earlier this month, Alarcon filed a domestic violence lawsuit in U.S. District Court against Polo. The suit makes claims of assault, battery and negligence, and seeks “fair compensation for noneconomic damages in an amount determined by the jury to be reasonable, and taxable costs.” Fuller told ESPN that Polo had been served notice of the lawsuit on Wednesday in Portland.
When asked if there were any plans to amend the complaint by adding the Timbers as defendants, Fuller said via text message, “All options remain on the table.”
Polo has denied Alarcon’s allegations. Reports out of Peru indicate Polo has signed with Lima-based side Club Universitario de Deportes, with whom he made his professional debut as a 16-year-old.