Cuban: 'Horrible mistake' to keep employee after domestic violence incidents
Mark Cuban says he messed up.
The Dallas Mavericks owner took sole responsibility for retaining former Mavs.com writer Earl K. Sneed after two separate domestic violence incidents, adding that he wasn't aware of the "gruesome details."
"I want to be clear, I'm not putting the blame on anybody else," Cuban told ESPN's Tim MacMahon on Wednesday. "It came down to my final decision that I made."
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In the first incident, Sneed got into an altercation with his then-girlfriend that left her with a fractured wrist and bruises on her body. He was arrested two months later at the Mavericks' office, and pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of family violence assault in June 2012. Sneed paid a $750 fine and completed both community service and an anger management program, which resulted in the charges being dismissed.
Cuban allowed the writer to return to the Mavericks after some counseling. Looking back, the billionaire businessman said he regrets not following up with police for more details.
"So we got it mostly from Earl's perspective, and because we didn't dig in with the details - and obviously it was a horrible mistake in hindsight - we kind of, I don't want to say took his word for it, but we didn't see all the gruesome details until just recently," Cuban said. "I didn't read the police report on that until just (Tuesday), and that was a huge mistake obviously."
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Sneed was involved in another domestic dispute in 2014, that time with a co-worker whom he was living with and dating, and rendered her face swollen. The woman informed her supervisor as well as HR director Buddy Pittman of the incident, but Cuban let Sneed keep his job.
The team owner indicated his rationale was wanting to control Sneed's problem through counseling rather than setting him loose to find another job and continue to act violently toward women.
"I made the decision that we would make him go to domestic abuse counseling as a requirement to continued employment, that he was not allowed to be alone without a chaperone in the presence of any other women in the organization or any other women in a business setting at all, and he was not allowed to date anybody (who works for the Mavericks)," Cuban said.
Cuban added that he'd handle the situation differently if he had the chance. He expressed the most regret about not realizing the message his decision sent to the rest of his employees and the toxic environment it ultimately enabled.
It wasn't until Tuesday when Sports Illustrated published findings from an investigation into the Mavericks' misogynistic and predatory culture that Cuban ostensibly fired Sneed and Pittman.