Three Questioned in Phillips Case

Police in San Diego questioned but did not arrest three construction workers Friday in connection with an attack on Charger nose tackle Joe Phillips outside a Mission Beach restaurant.

The men voluntarily submitted to questioning for about 30 minutes each before being released, Sgt. Pete Munholand said. The men, all San Diego residents, were not arrested because they are cooperating with investigators and are not likely to leave town, Munholand said.

Phillips was released Friday from Sharp Memorial Hospital after suffering a concussion, a broken bone around his eye, a broken nose, cuts and bruises in the attack. In a statement, he offered for the first time his account of the incident, which occurred early Wednesday morning.

Phillips said that after he and an unidentified woman left Saska’s restaurant on Mission Boulevard, a car pulled up as they walked, and words were exchanged between men in the car and the woman. The men then got out, Phillips said, began yelling and pushed the woman to the ground.

At that point, Phillips said, two of the men came at him and he was hit in the back of the head and fell.

“The next thing I remember is looking up, seeing the girl being held by at least one of them,” Phillips said. “And then I remember getting kicked, and then I went out. The next thing I remember is walking up to the ambulance.

“All I was saying was, ‘Come on, let’s get in the car and get out of here.’ I wasn’t interested in fighting at all. I’d never seen them before. . . . It was completely unprovoked.”

Phillips is expected to be out of the Chargers’ lineup for eight weeks.