Bowe Let Go - Sort Of

A federal judge on Friday decided to release former heavyweight champion Riddick Bowe from jail, but with strict limitations including 24-hour electronic monitoring.

He will continue being held in the Mecklenburg County jail until a friend's Maryland home can be equipped with monitoring equipment.

Bowe, who was arrested in Long Island, N.Y., on Feb. 8 on charges of assaulting his wife, could have his probation revoked on a previous domestic violence conviction involving his former wife.

If his probation is revoked, Bowe could be sentenced to prison.

Prosecutors told U.S. Magistrate Judge Brent McKnight at a hearing Friday that Bowe should remain in jail until a court can rule if he violated the conditions of his probation on last year's conviction.

He poses a serious danger to the community, particularly his family, they said.

"People are getting hurt and Riddick is the one doing the hurting," Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicks Williams said. "He must be stopped."

Defense attorneys told McKnight that Bowe doesn't present a threat to anyone.

"He's a target and he'll continue to be a target because he's a professional boxer," defense attorney Robert Altchiler said after the three-hour hearing.

The defense presented evidence that his wife, Terri, recanted a previous accusation that Bowe hit her during an argument over her son. They also brought in a witness who said he beat up Bowe's nephew during an argument last November, not Bowe as the nephew alleged.

On the most recent assault charge, Altchiler said Mrs. Bowe has given authorities different versions of what took place in the couple's Long Island home two weeks ago.

"Mrs. Bowe has lied about my client before," he said.

Prosecutors told the judge the couple had argued over a fur coat and jewelry.

"He struck her with a closed and open fist," Williams said. "He chased her outside and dragged her back inside."

McKnight agreed to release Bowe on a $100,000 unsecured bond. The judge allowed him to live in the Maryland home of his close friend, Jeffrey Jackson, where he will be under 24-hour house arrest. Bowe will remain in jail until the house is prepared, which could take several days.

Bowe is under a court order to stay away from his wife and her two sons. Altchiler said Feb. 9 that the couple is splitting up after a "very brief marriage."

In court papers filed last week, federal probation officer Richard Graybill asked the court to revoke Bowe's four years of probation and sentence him to 18 months in prison.

Bowe, 33, was arrested following a fight with his wife at their Long Island home, according to police in Nassau County, N.Y. Investigators said the boxer dragged his wife, leaving her with cuts on her knees and elbows.

Bowe was charged with third-degree assault, a misdemeanor.

Last February, Bowe was sentenced to 30 das in prison for a 1998 episode in which Judy Bowe said she and the couple's five children were forced from their Charlotte-area home.

After being charged with kidnapping, Bowe pleaded guilty to a federal interstate domestic violence charge. A federal judge in Charlotte sentenced him to 30 days, citing the boxer's head injuries during his years in the ring as the reason for leniency.

In his prime, Bowe was a 6-foot-5, 235-pound heavyweight fighter who won his first 31 fights, all but two by knockout, to earn a title shot against Evander Holyfield. In November 1992, he defeated Holyfield and earned the title of undisputed heavyweight champion of the world.

Bowe won a silver medal in the 1988 Olympics and earned more than $75 million in the ring, but he has been plagued by legal and physical problems since losing a rematch with Holyfield in 1993.

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