King Boosts Prosecution
The prosecution’s case against Don King appeared on the ropes until the boxing promoter took the witness stand for three days and revived the government’s charges.
Before King testified, defense lawyer Peter Fleming doubted if the government could even claim in fairness that King’s company lied to Lloyd’s of London by asking for $350,000 for a 1991 cancelled bout.
King testified the fake $350,000 claim was indeed made - by his former accountant, Joseph Maffia.
“It was made up, yes,” King said.
King’s testimony, which ended Monday, gave jurors a long look at a man the government said was so meticulous about finances that he insisted on signing all checks himself, even for as little as a nickel.
There was a brief session before the jury and closing arguments were scheduled to begin this morning.
A federal jury in New York has decided that a Pennsylvania architectural firm must be paid for work it did on blueprints for Yankee Stadium luxury boxes.
The amount to be paid will be decided in the second phase of the trial beginning Thursday.
The firm, GSGSB Inc. of Scranton, Pa., filed a $1 million lawsuit accusing the Yankees of failing to pay its bills after hiring it in 1984 to design luxury boxes and a restaurant at the stadium.
After the Yankees failed to get the city to pay for the renovation, the club dropped its plans.
In Paterson, N.J., Lennox Lewis has asked a New Jersey judge to bar the WBC from sanctioning a heavyweight championship bout between Mike Tyson and Frank Bruno.
Passaic County Superior Court Judge Amos C. Saunders ordered the World Boxing Council to appear at a Nov. 28 hearing to show cause why he shouldn’t issue the ban.
Lewis wants a shot at Bruno, the WBC heavyweight titleholder, before Tyson. Both men are former champs.
In Cincinnati, a jury deliberated an hour before declaring groundless a woman’s civil charge of rape against former Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Mitch Williams.
Williams, now retired, declined comment as he left Hamilton County (Ohio) Common Pleas Court after the unanimous decision by eight jurors.
A northern Kentucky mother of two children sued in February 1994, accusing Williams of raping her the night of Sept. 4, 1993, in a Cincinnati hotel room.
Rod Strickland of the Portland Trail Blazers, charged with assault for allegedly punching a woman in the eye, is scheduled for a hearing in New York on Monday.
Strickland was arrested Monday and charged with third-degree assault, menacing and harassment. If convicted, he faces up to one year in jail.