By CHRIS KAHN
Associated Press Writer
MESA, Ariz. (AP) — Former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson
pleaded guilty Monday to charges of drug possession and driving
under the influence stemming from a traffic stop last year as he
was leaving a nightclub.
Tyson quietly acknowledged to a judge that he had cocaine and
was impaired when he was stopped for driving erratically in
Scottsdale on Dec. 29. He faces a maximum of four years and three
months in prison when he is sentenced Nov. 19.
Police stopped Tyson after the boxer had spent the evening at
Scottsdale’s Pussycat Lounge. An officer said he saw Tyson wiping a
white substance off the dashboard of his black BMW, and that his
speech was slurred. Authorities said they found bags of cocaine in
Tyson’s pocket and in his car.
Tyson told officers later that he used cocaine “whenever I can
get my hands on it,” and that he preferred to smoke it in Marlboro
cigarettes with the tobacco pulled out, according to court
documents. He also told police that he used marijuana that day and
was taking the antidepressant Zoloft, the documents state.
Since his arrest, Tyson checked himself into an in-patient
treatment program for what his lawyer called “various
addictions.” Defense lawyer David Chesnoff had said previously
that he had try to keep the boxer out of prison.
In 1986, Tyson became the youngest heavyweight champion in
history when, at 20, he knocked out Trevor Berbick. He lost his
title four years later when he was knocked out by James “Buster”
Douglas. By 1997, Tyson’s career hit a low point when he bit
Evander Holyfield’s ear during a fight.
Tyson, 41, recently had been trying to revive his career with a
series of boxing exhibitions.
County Attorney Andrew Thomas said earlier this year that Tyson
should be put behind bars if convicted, noting that Tyson was
convicted of rape in Indiana in 1992 and pleaded no contest to
misdemeanor assault charges in Maryland in 1999. “He has run out
of second chances,” Thomas said.
(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)