NFL wants Hardy to supply photos of crime scene

Less than a year after the Ray Rice incident erupted into the worst controversy in NFL history, league officials have requested that Carolina Panthers defensive end Greg Hardy give them all relevant information from his domestic violence case, including photos showing the crime scene and the injuries to his former girlfriend, Nicole Holder.

After the uproar last September over the elevator video of Rice punching the woman he later married, Janay Palmer Rice, the NFL does not want to rule on Hardy’s punishment without seeing those photos.

League officials also are expected to scrutinize one key piece of Holder’s testimony against Hardy: That he threw her onto a futon covered with rifles.

Hardy, 26, originally was found guilty of domestic violence in a bench trial last summer before being cleared of all charges last month when Holder could not be found to testify against him in a jury trial.

That is why the league is now looking to Hardy himself to provide those materials, and it expects him to do just that so he can obtain a resolution in his case and know what league punishment he will be facing before he becomes a free agent March 10.

Another aspect of the case certain to be considered by the league is the fact that Hardy was found guilty by Mecklenburg (N.C.) District Judge Becky Thorne Tin in the bench trial.

But Hardy exercised his rights under North Carolina law, which dictates that someone found guilty of a misdemeanor before a judge is allowed to appeal to a jury trial.

In fact, in his report on the Rice investigation released in January, former FBI director Robert Mueller encouraged the league to embark on its own investigations and a new kind of no-nonsense toughness, exemplified by the league’s new personal conduct policy.