Aug. 17, 1964 - A charge that Dodger baseball coach Leo Durocher punched an autograph seeker on the jaw following yesterday’s doubleheader at Dodger Stadium will be heard by the Los Angeles attorney’s office Aug. 26.
Robert Hallsworth, 29, an engineer, told police Durocher hit him as they stood in the parking lot after he asked the coach to sign an autograph for his daughter.
Hallsworth later signed a battery report at Central Receiving Hospital. The engineer was treated for minor injuries and released.
Durocher reportedly said he hit Hallsworth in self-defense.
Hallsworth, who complained of having several loose teeth, told police: “I went to the Dodger-Cardinals game with my wife and 12-year-old stepdaughter, Karen. Karen bought a Dodger phonograph record and got in line by Durocher’s car waiting to get his autograph.
There were two good-looking girls in the front seat with Durocher. Without saying a word, he suddenly rolled up the window. The two girls got out, and Durocher backed up and then drove ahead about 20 feet.
“Somebody, I think it was a kid, called out: ‘Durocher, you’re a jerk!’ Durocher stopped his car. Then he backed it up fast, making the youngsters duck out of the way.”
Hallsworth said Durocher got out of his car, walked up, and demanded, “Who called me a jerk?”
Hallsworth claims that “for a joke,” he said, “maybe I did.”
“Without another word, Durocher hit me right in the face,” Hallsworth told police.
A spectator, George Quinones, 53, of Inglewood, told police Hallsworth did not raise his arm to hit Durocher.
“After Durocher hit Hallsworth, another man walked over and backhanded Durocher across the face,” Quinones said. Durocher then drove off after a security guard arrived, the witness said.
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