NBA reopens investigation of Jaxson Hayes’ 2021 domestic incident: ‘We’re going to cooperate fully’
TORONTO — The NBA has reopened an investigation into a 2021 domestic incident involving Lakers center Jaxson Hayes after TMZ on Saturday posted a video of the altercation between Hayes and his then-girlfriend Sofia Jamora.
“As a result of the media report and video posted on Saturday, we are reopening our investigation,” a league spokesperson said in a statement to the Southern California News Group on Sunday morning.
The 5½-minute security camera footage that TMZ obtained and posted, which came from a Ring camera, is timestamped July 28, 2021, starting at 1:35 a.m.
The footage showed Hayes, who was playing for the New Orleans Pelicans at the time, arguing with his ex-girlfriend and appearing to pull Jamora out of a doorway while she was saying, “Stop. Let go of me.”
Hayes replied, “[Expletive] wrong with you?”
Around 1:57 a.m., after Jamora and Hayes appeared to go upstairs in the Woodland Hills residence where the incident took place, Jamora could be heard repeatedly saying “Stop touching me.”
Around 2:02 a.m., Hayes and Jamora are shown leaving the residence and continuing their altercation in the driveway of the residence, with Jamora saying: “I’m not going to let you hit me anymore. What the [expletive] do I look like, a punching bag? Get in the car and leave.”
After the comment, Hayes appears to bump into Jamora, who replies, “Ow, what is your problem?” The video showed Hayes turning his head back to Jamora and spitting toward her before walking out of frame.
There were multiple time jumps in the footage, which ended with a timestamp of 2:06 a.m. on July 28, 2021.
Los Angeles police officers responded to a call by a cousin of Jamora around 2:50 a.m., with Hayes being arrested for resisting a police officer. An officer was treated for an elbow injury suffered when Hayes shoved him against the wall, police said, and Hayes was treated for what police described as minor injuries.
In June 2022, he was sentenced to three years of probation, 450 hours of community service and a year of weekly domestic violence classes after pleading no contest to two misdemeanor charges stemming from an incident.
The NBA didn’t discipline Hayes after its first investigation.
Hayes signed a two-year, $4.6 million contract with the Lakers in July 2023.
“The most important thing is we take those things very seriously and do a full vetting process,” Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka said last summer after signing Hayes. “Jaxson has been very sincere [in] his apologies around handling that and has moved beyond it to where he’s had a year or two in the NBA playing after it. It was something that we felt like he owned, took responsibility for it, and is going to be a better person on the other side of it.”
A request to speak with Hayes after the team’s Sunday practice in Toronto was declined.
When asked about the league reopening the investigation, Lakers coach JJ Redick responded: “We’re obviously aware that the investigation has been reopened, and we’re going to cooperate fully,” Redick said after practice. “But other than that, I’m not going to have another comment on that.”