Report: Rich Hill Arrested Outside Gillette Stadium Before Patriots-Bills Game

Brad Mills-USA TODAY Sports

Free-agent pitcher Rich Hill was arrested outside Gillette Stadium before Saturday's Patriots-Bills game, according to The Boston Globe.

Hill's wife Caitlin tried to enter the stadium multiple times with an oversized bag and refused to leave when ordered by the authorities, Foxborough police told the Globe. Robert Bolger, chief administrator for the police department, told the newspaper that Caitlin Hill was arrested on charges of disorderly conduct and trespassing. He said when Rich Hill saw officers putting Caitlin in a prisoner transport van he intervened with police.

"[Hill] saw her as they were trying to get her into a van to bring to the police station, and he started to interfere with the officers," Bolger said. "He was told several times to back up and he would not. And he ended up getting arrested."

Rich and Caitlin Hill were arraigned Monday in Wrentham District Court. The Globe reports Norfolk District Attorney Michael Morrissey’s office changed the criminal charges against the couple into civil infractions. Morrissey spokesperson David Traub said Rich Hill's charge of resisting arrest, a felony, was dismissed before his arraignment by Morrissey's office in the "interests of justice."

Caitlin Hill's two charges were turned into civil infractions and she was ordered to pay a fine of $250 each. Rich Hill was fined $500 for the single count of disorderly conduct he faced, Traub told the Globe.

The newspaper's call to a lawyer believed to be representing Hill was not immediately returned.

Hill, a Boston native, is a free agent this winter after spending the past 3 1/2 seasons with the Dodgers. In 2019, he posted a 2.45 ERA with 72 strikeouts in 13 starts. Hill battled a knee injury that saw him start the 2019 season on the injured list. The 39-year-old had surgery on his left elbow after missing three months in the middle of last season with a strained flexor tendon in his forearm.