Baylor official arrested for assaulting reporter after game
A Baylor athletic department employee was arrested earlier this month for assaulting a sports writer following a game, according to a new report.
KWTX reports that Heath Nielsen, who is an associate athletic director at Baylor, is free on bond after being arrested for misdemeanor assault following the Bears’ loss to TCU on Nov. 5.
Nielsen is accused of walking up to a sports writer who was taking a photo of a player, trying to knock the phone out of the writer’s hand, and then choking the writer.
“About that time they came in and tomahawk-chopped, trying to knock the phone that I had taken the picture with out of my hand. They were unsuccessful in trying to do that, and when they couldn’t do that they came up and they grabbed my throat, and I pulled back. Whenever I looked up I saw that it was Heath Nielsen,” James McBride, the victim, said in a police affidavit.
Nielsen was charged with assault with bodily injury, a Class A misdemeanor, according to KWTX. They say Nielsen has been absent from Baylor games since the incident.
Nielsen has worked at Baylor since 2000. He was in the media relations and communications departments before assuming his current position in 2012.
