Wife of Westland soccer referee killed by player serves red card to defendant at sentencing
on March 13, 2015 at 10:58 AM, updated March 13, 2015 at 2:18 PM
DETROIT, MI -- The mother, three sisters and wife of 44-year-old John Bieniewicz of Westland put into words the devastation of a man's single punch Friday.
Soccer player Bassel Saad, 37, of Dearborn, punched and killed Bieniewicz, a married father of two who worked as a dialysis technician at Mott Children's Hospital in Ann Arbor, during a soccer match in Livonia last summer.
Witnesses said Bieniewicz, the referee, was about to give Saad a red card and eject him from the exhibition game when Saad unexpectedly punched the referee in the throat.
Bieniewicz died two days later of blunt force trauma, according to the Wayne County Medical Examiner's Office.
Saad, originally charged with second-degree murder, accepted a plea deal on a count of manslaughter. On Friday Wayne County Circuit Judge Thomas Cameron sentenced Saad to between 8 and 15 years in prison, with 256 days served.
Kristen Bieniewicz, John Bieniewicz's wife, symbolically delivered the red card her husband never got the chance to in court Friday.
"Before I go, the one final thing I would like to do is I would like to serve Mr. Saad with the red card that he was intended," she said.
•Related: Detroit soccer fans honor slain ref with red card tribute
Kristen Bieniewicz said despite what the media might say, she considers Saad a murderer. There would be no question, had Saad run to the sidelines and grabbed a gun to shoot her husband, but because he used "the one weapon that was available to him, his fist, there's doubt," she said.
"There's no doubt in my mind," said Kristen Bieniewicz. "Mr. Saad murdered my husband senselessly."
She said she's left trying to explain to her son "why the system didn't do his father the justice he was deserved."
"Never will I be able to answer that question for him," the mother told the court. "My husband should have been able to go along refereeing the game that he loves."
Saad, a father of two, appeared in court wearing a green Wayne County jumpsuit.
"I think about him and his family every day, I pray for him and his family every day," Saad told the court. "I'm so sorry from the bottom of my heart. I didn't mean for this to happen."
Saad is a Lebanese citizen but has lived in the U.S. legally for about 15 years, a clerk for Cameron said. He could face deportation upon completion of his sentence.
Cameron ordered Saad to pay $9,265 in restitution and nearly $1,000 in court fines and other costs.
Cameron called the killing a "senseless, childish act" committed "because of rage."
According to the Detroit Free Press, this isn't the first time Saad committed an assault while playing a recreational soccer game.
In 2005, he served five days community service and 12 months probation after pleading no contest to assault and battery for hitting another player in the head multiple times, the Detroit Free Press reports.
Laura Meyer, John Bieniewicz's eldest of three sisters by eight years, reminisced about her brother from his childhood through adulthood.
"I remember that John brought to my childhood Matchbox cars, Star Wars, sports and messes," she said. "Our childhood was blessed and happy."
She said the years flew by, and her brother was "just as precious" as an adult.
The siblings talked about retiring one day "Up North" where they grew up and their parents still live.
"Some of my favorite memories are sitting around the fire pit Up North laughing with family," she said. "Now, every time we sit around that fire pit, there will be an empty place."
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