Ballplayer's Marital Strife Escalates
Published: May 24, 2007
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TAMPA - NiShea and Elijah Dukes were a couple consumed by rage against each other. Their arguments and shouting matches often centered on money and sometimes involved police. Court records detail a trail of fights between the two, charges and countercharges.
That trail might simply have led to the formal end of an unhappy and unworkable marriage. But then Elijah Dukes, a 6-foot-2, 250-pound rookie center fielder for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, showed up at the middle school where his estranged wife teaches and threatened to kill her, she alleges. That elevated the domestic problems of a troubled couple to front page news.
His mother says he went to the school April 30 after discovering NiShea Dukes cleaned out his bank account.
NiShea Dukes denies that allegation. For now, Dukes remains in good standing with the Devil Rays.
No charges were filed. Dukes was given a trespass warning after showing up on campus. The incident was considered serious enough to prompt the district to "take measures to protect her safety," said Hillsborough County school district spokeswoman Linda Cobbe.
That incident triggered the by-now familiar response whenever Dukes is involved. There were cameras and questions at Tropicana Field on Wednesday to record this latest chapter of an immensely talented player in trouble and now on the defensive.
The Rays say they consider this a private matter and will offer counseling and assistance to Dukes.
He is expected to play in today's game, also at Tropicana Field. He was not in the lineup Wednesday.
"It's something that will be the subject of an ongoing investigation, but it's something we can only monitor at a distance," Rays President Matt Silverman said. "We've involved the necessary parties here, and at this point we can only help provide assistance to Elijah in what we know is a very difficult time for him."
Any action taken by the Rays against Dukes could be contested by the Major League Baseball Players Association. A union spokesman did not return a call Wednesday asking for comment.
Wife Sought Alimony
NiShea Dukes, who has two children with Elijah, has asked for $28,000 a month in alimony and child support, according to court records. Dukes' pay averages about $29,230 a month.
Dukes had no comment after his wife went public with the confrontation at Beth Shields Middle School. He repeated an obscenity twice at reporters who tried to talk to him before Wednesday's game.
Dukes, who was born in Miami but grew up in Tampa and graduated from Hillsborough High School, is in his first season in the major leagues. While playing for the Devil Rays' minor-league team in Durham, N.C., last season, Dukes was suspended five times for transgressions that included altercations with a coach and teammate.
Troubles Had Waned
His rookie season had been going smoothly, though.
"Everything had been fine up to this point. It's just everything that happened in the past. He's been acting well, but you know in the back of everybody's mind, I'm pretty sure they were wondering if something like this was going to happen again," teammate Carl Crawford said.
"So when something like this happens, it gives everybody a chance to say, 'I told you so,' which is not what you want. I just hate the fact that it kind of went into that direction, the way everybody was kind of thinking to begin with."
Dukes has had trouble with law enforcement in the past, including an allegation in 2005 from a former girlfriend that he choked her, forced her into a chair and demanded a kiss. The case became inactive because the girlfriend did not follow through on her charges. He also pleaded no contest in 2005 to grabbing his sister by the throat and punching her arm.
NiShea Dukes has been arrested twice for misdemeanor battery during confrontations with Elijah. During one argument in 2004 over money, he charged that she forced her way into his residence and sprayed him in the face with "an unknown substance from an aerosol container," records show. Prosecutors eventually decided not to prosecute.
Dukes was welcomed back to the Rays this spring after completing anger management counseling and made the major-league roster. He has eight home runs, among the top totals for rookies, and has been the team's starting center fielder after an injury to Rocco Baldelli.
Relationship Began In 2003
While he was concentrating on his baseball career, records show, his marriage to NiShea Gilbert Dukes had disintegrated apparently beyond repair. They were married on Feb. 27, 2006, records show. Their relationship began in 2003, while she was a student at the University of South Florida and he was still at Hillsborough High.
She asked for and received three temporary injunctions against him but never received a permanent one because she didn't show up for hearings or judges ruled that she hadn't supported her allegations with enough facts, according to court records. During one such petition for protection Jan. 8, she claimed her husband struck her on the back of the head with a closed fist and threw shoes at her, records show. She also said he sent her a text message "telling me, 'I'm dead.'"
Dukes was not charged in that incident.
She asked for another injunction after the April 30 incident but failed to show up at the court on May 14 to testify for a permanent restraining order. She said he missed that date because she had a sick child in the hospital, although she didn't specify the child or the hospital in court records.
Dukes' mother, Phyllis, said that incident was triggered by Nishea Dukes' withdrawal of thousands of dollars from a bank account. She later returned the money, Phyllis Dukes said, but not until the pair had a fight at Tropicana Field.
NiShea Dukes disputed that story.
"I'm not going to feed into that," she said in a text message to The Tampa Tribune. "How can I steal money when we [are] married with two kids? And on a joint account?"
In an interview later, she said, "All I want my husband to do is get help."
She said she received a threatening voice message and a picture of a pistol from Dukes on her cell phone. The expletive-filled message said, in part, "Hey dog, it's on dog, you dead dog. … Your kids too, dog."
Phyllis Dukes described NiShea Dukes as a woman scorned who was having trouble with the couple's breakup.
"He moved on with his life," Phyllis Dukes said. "She was hurting a lot."
"I'll be glad when they're divorced, separated," she said.
Editor Howard Altman, staff writers Valerie Kalfrin, Marc Lancaster, Carter Gaddis and Mike Wells and researcher Melanie Coon contributed to this report. Reporter Joe Henderson can be reached at (813) 259-7861 or jhenderson@tampatrib.com. Reporter Anthony McCartney can be reached at (813) 259-7616 or amccartney@tampatrib.com.
