Grand Rapids Born Mayweather Due To Serve 90 Days In Vegas Jail
KEN RITTER,Associated Press
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. is due Friday to begin serving 90 days in a county jail in Las Vegas for his guilty plea in a domestic violence case involving an attack on his ex-girlfriend while two of their children watched in September 2010.
A judge last month ordered the undefeated 34-year-old prizefighter to turn himself in for a three-month sentence that Las Vegas police say could end up being about 60 days with good behavior and work time.
The case stems from a hair-pulling, punching and arm-twisting argument with Josie Harris, the mother of three of Mayweather's children, and threats to beat their sons in an argument about Harris dating another man. Harris, now 31, lives in the Los Angeles area with the couple's sons, now 12 and 10, and a daughter age 8.
Mayweather's lawyers, his promoter-manager, Leonard Ellerbe, and court and Clark County Detention Center officials didn't say Thursday what, if any, arrangements had been made for the surrender of the fighter who goes by the nickname "Money." He has earned upward of $20 million for his most recent fights against Victor Ortiz, which won him the WBC welterweight belt, and "Sugar" Shane Mosley.
Attorney Karen Winckler has said she was considering asking the judge who sentenced Mayweather to reconsider.
Jail time is expected to limit training for a possible Cinco de Mayo date for a fight in Las Vegas, where Mayweather's promoters reserved a May 5 date at the MGM Grand Garden Arena for a possible fight against an as-yet unnamed opponent.
There has been no word from Mayweather's camp about any proposals for a long-awaited showdown between Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao, a champion fighter from the Philippines against whom Mayweather's welterweight success is usually measured. The two men have a defamation lawsuit pending in Las Vegas federal court stemming from statements by Mayweather that he suspected Pacquiao was taking performance-enhancing drugs.
Justice of the Peace Melissa Saragosa sentenced Mayweather after he pleaded guilty Dec. 21 to a reduced battery domestic violence charge and no contest to two harassment charges in a plea deal that saw prosecutors drop felony and misdemeanor charges that could have gotten Mayweather 34 years in state prison if he were convicted of all charges.
The judge called jail time appropriate, after a prosecutor complained that Mayweather has been in trouble before and hadn't faced serious consequences. The judge suspended three months of the six-month sentence she imposed but ordered Mayweather to complete 100 hours of community service, pay a $2,500 fine and complete a yearlong domestic violence counseling program.
Winckler also promised the judge that Mayweather would donate $100,000 to breast cancer research.
It wasn't known what effect the conviction will have on state boxing regulators. Nevada athletic commissioners will take it into consideration when they consider a new license for Mayweather, which expired in December, commission executive Keith Kizer said.
As part of the plea deal, Mayweather also pleaded no contest Dec. 30 to misdemeanor harassment in a separate case stemming from a scuffle with a 21-year-old homeowner association security guard who claimed he was poked in the face during an argument about parking tickets on cars outside Mayweather's house.
The extended jail stint will be a first for Mayweather, who has been arrested several times since 2002 in battery and violence cases in Las Vegas and in his hometown of Grand Rapids, Mich. He was:
— Convicted in 2002 of misdemeanor battery stemming from a fight with two women at a Las Vegas nightclub, received a suspended one-year jail sentence and was ordered to undergo impulse-control counseling.
— Fined in Grand Rapids in February 2005 and ordered to perform community service after pleading no contest to misdemeanor assault and battery for a bar fight.
— Acquitted by a Nevada jury in July 2005 of accusations that he hit and kicked Harris during an argument outside a Las Vegas nightclub.
— Acquitted last October of misdemeanor allegations that he threatened two homeowner association security guards during a parking ticket argument separate from the one in November.
Mayweather faces a civil lawsuit in state court in Las Vegas from two men who allege he orchestrated a shooting attack on them outside a skating rink in 2009. Police have never accused Mayweather of firing shots, and he has never been criminally charged in that case.
He is also on the hook for 40 hours of community service with the Las Vegas Habitat for Humanity Project under a South Carolina federal judge's order for dodging a deposition in a music rights lawsuit.
(© Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
