Boston Red Sox prospect Cody Kukuk arrested for aggravated robbery

The Lawrence Journal-World is reporting this evening that Boston Red Sox minor league pitcher Cody Kukuk has been arrested in Long Beach, California. Kukuk was arrested Monday in California on a warrant from Douglas County, Kansas, and is being held without bail pending extradition proceedings to Lawrence.

A Douglas County District Court judge issued warrants for Gabriel Alexander Patterson, 20, and professional baseball player Cody Scott Kukuk, 21, both of Lawrence, in connection with a home-invasion robbery at an apartment in the 900 block of Arkansas Street on Nov. 8, Lawrence Police Department spokesman Trent McKinley said.

Police alleged that the men entered the Arkansas Street apartment with handguns, battered residents and took their belongings, McKinley said last week.

Court documents allege that cash, two cellphones, an Xbox 360 and the contents of a safe were taken during the incident.

Kukuk and Patterson remain in jail in Long Beach without bail, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s booking log.

Kukuk was drafted by the Red Sox in the seventh round in 2011 from Free State High School in Lawrence, KS. He pitched for Low-A Greensville and High-A Salem in 2014 and was considered one of the more promising young pitchers in the Red Sox farm system.

This is not Kukuk's first run-in with the law: he was arrested in 2012 in Florida and charged with drunk driving.

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The current situation is far more serious: home invasion involving firearms, battery of the victims, and interstate flight. Should Kukuk be convicted of these violent crimes, his professional career will be at an end.

ADDITIONAL DETAILS:

Channel 6 news in Lawrence reports the following:

Police said several suspects forced their way into an apartment where three males and one female were inside. Lawrence Police Department spokesman Sgt. Trent McKinley said several of the suspects battered some of the victims. McKinley said several, but not all, suspects had their faces covered during the home invasion.

21-year-old Lawrence resident Zachary John Pence was arrested on November 8. He was charged with four counts of felony aggravated robbery and one count of felony aggravated burglary.

20-year-old Lawrence resident Driskell Alan Johnson was arrested on November 13. He was charged with four counts of felony aggravated robbery and one count of felony aggravated burglary.

20-year-old Lawrence resident Yusef Muhammad Kindell was arrested on November 18 for four counts of aggravated burglary and four counts of aggravated robbery. He has not been officially charged.

Two suspects, Cody Kukuk and Gabriel Patterson, fled Kansas to California but were arrested after Douglas County officials issued warrants for their arrests.