Kurt Busch testifies in assault case
Former girlfriend says he choked her, smashed her head into wall.
DOVER, Del. - NASCAR driver Kurt Busch had his turn on the witness stand yesterday and testified that he repeatedly told his ex-girlfriend to leave his motorhome the night she claims he assaulted her.
Testifying at a hearing on Patricia Driscoll's request for a no-contact order, Busch said she came uninvited and unannounced to his motorhome at Dover International Speedway in September, a week after he broke off their relationship. He said she demanded that he tell her son to his face that their relationship was over.
Driscoll, 37, testified a day earlier that Busch choked her and smashed her head into the bedroom wall three times and that she still fears for her safety.
"I don't know what he's capable of doing," she said.
Busch, 36, said that while the two were in his bedroom, he again asked her to leave, for what he said was the fifth time.
"I took my hands and cupped her cheeks and I looked at her eye to eye and I said 'you need to leave.' I was defusing the situation," he said.
Busch's attorneys have denied the assault allegations, which are the subject of a separate criminal investigation by Dover police.
Busch was called to the stand by Driscoll's attorney, Carolyn McNeice. She did not ask him whether he smashed Driscoll's head against the wall.
"She just did not want to hear that denial," Busch attorney Rusty Hardin said after the hearing. Hardin will cross-examine Busch when the hearing resumes Jan. 12.
"He will explain in detail his side of it," Hardin said.