
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, March 27, 1992                   TAG: 9203270169
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: DAVE ANDERSON
DATELINE: INDIANAPOLIS                                LENGTH: Medium

COCKY FIGHTER COULD BE DOWN FOR THE COUNT

When the judge's words hit Mike Tyson, he just sat there. When he was dethroned as the heavyweight champion by James "Buster" Douglas two years ago in Tokyo, he fumbled his mouthpiece with his gloves before he was counted out. But now he just sat at a wooden table as Judge Patricia Gifford's three phrases hit him harder than any three punches ever had.

"Ten years," the judge said in sentencing him for one count of rape and two counts of criminal deviate conduct. "Ten years. Ten years."

Ten is a familiar boxing number. When a boxer is knocked down, a referee counts to 10. When a boxer has his first 10-round fight, he knows he's a main-event pro. And Thursday Mike Tyson got 10 years, what the prosecutors termed an "appropriate" sentence for his having been convicted of raping Desiree Washington.

Yes, the judge ruled that Mike Tyson has to serve only six years. And with good behavior he could be paroled after only three years.

"But he got 10 years," the special prosecutor, Gregory Garrison, said later. "She suspended four and he's facing at least three. But he may do the whole six and he may do the whole 10 if he can't behave himself."

From the time Mike Tyson was mugging old ladies in Brownsville as a 12-year-old thug, not behaving himself has been his primary problem.

That's why he was sent to an upstate New York reform school. That's why he swaggered through the streets. That's why he's now a convicted rapist. That's why he acted as arrogantly as ever Thursday in pleading his case.

Instead of sounding contrite, he said, "I'm not here to beg for mercy; whatever happens, happens."

Instead of understanding Washington's suffering, he said, "I'm not guilty of this crime; there were no black eyes, no broken ribs. When I'm in the ring, I break their ribs; I break their jaws. To me that's hurting somebody."

Instead of promising to rehabilitate himself, he said, "I expect the worst. I don't know if I can deal with it, but I expect the worst."

According to Garrison, who spoke briefly to Washington on the telephone after the sentencing, the victim sounded "somber" with no sense of elation and hoped that her attacker would "be healed" by rehabilitation.

Prison, of course, has been known to harden some offenders rather than soften them. And as a boxer confronted by at least three years in prison, Tyson's career will surely harden.

Tyson, who will be 26 years old on June 30, is in a situation similar to the one that interrupted Muhammad Ali's career. Ali was 25 when he was stripped of the heavyweight title in 1967 for having refused induction because of his Black Muslim beliefs.

Although the U.S. Supreme Court upheld his appeal in 1971 and Ali did not go to jail, he had spent three and one-half years in exile before he was allowed to fight in late 1970.

Although Ali regained the title from George Foreman in 1974 and again from Leon Spinks in 1978, before his exile he was faster and a sharper puncher.

Three years in prison will surely slow Tyson, whose deceptive hand speed and foot speed were often forgotten in the excitement over his punching power.

And there's still a chance that Tyson's appeal will keep him out of prison on bond. As soon as the sentencing ended, Tyson's latest attorney, Alan Dershowitz, scrambled out of the courtroom so quickly and so noisily that Gifford glanced over her shoulder to see what the commotion was all about.

Dershowitz, whose celebrated clients have included Claus von Bulow and Leona Helmsley, was hurrying to the state Court of Appeals in the nearby state building.

Three appellate judges are expected to rule today on Tyson's request to remain free on bond, pending the appeal.

"Bright guy. Writes good briefs," Garrison said of Dershowitz. "He's still got to be right. I don't think he is."

As a convicted rapist, Tyson deserves to remain in jail until his appeal is heard. Even he seemed to realize that. As five uniformed officers of the Marion County Sheriff's Office surrounded him, he stood up, unclicked his Rolex wristwatch, slipped it over his left hand and gave it to his primary defense attorney, Vincent Fuller, before disappearing through a back door.

Mike Tyson has been locked up before. Pending his appeal, he knows he won't need to know what time it is until March 26, 1995. Until then a calendar is enough.

by CNB