: 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 pleaded guilty to a single felony count of cocaine possession and a misdemeanor DUI count and faces up to four years and three months in prison when he is sentenced Nov. 19. A felony charge of possession of drug paraphernalia and a second misdemeanor DUI charge were dropped as part of a plea agreement.
Defense lawyer David Chesnoff said Tyson has been clean and sober for eight months.
"It's obvious this was a crime he was committing against himself," Chesnoff said.
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 inpatient treatment program for what his lawyer called "various addictions."
County Attorney Andrew Thomas said Tyson should be put in prison, noting that Tyson was convicted of rape in Indiana in 1992 and pleaded no contest to misdemeanor assault charges in Maryland in 1999.
"Mike Tyson is a repeat offender with a violent past," Thomas said. "I believe only a prison sentence will send the right message and properly protect the public."
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.
This idiot got that tattoo on his face so that people will still know who he is after he retired. Well, the cops now know who he is also. Mike stands out like a sore thumb so he deserves to be jack-up everywhere he goes. He needs to remove the tattoo so that he can blend in with George Foreman's sons and be alright.
See it's heartless dogs like this D.A. Andrew Thomas,that give the "decent" white ppl a bad name. The man has admitted he has a sickness,he needs medical help not prison time.When Tyson was a youth nobody mentioned steriod usage as he knocked out grown men much bigger then him.His mood swings and temper tantrums were probably a result of steriod usage.Look at his head size and forget about Barry Bonds for awhile.HMMM! Also it has long been rumored he was sexually abused by his trainer when he was a teenager. However as long as he was making money for whitey,no questions were asked.
