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

DATE: TUESDAY, September 21, 1993                   TAG: 9309210198
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: HAMPTON                                LENGTH: Short

JUDGE: ATHLETE'S ATTORNEY ERRED

A Circuit Court judge said a lawyer was wrong to tell supporters of a jailed high-school athlete that a hearing had been scheduled Monday on possible bond when no such hearing had been set.

Judge Walter J. Ford told spectators gathered in his courtroom that he never intended to decide on bond for Allen Iverson, convicted of three felonies in a Valentine's Day brawl in a bowling alley.

Ford scolded James Ellenson, Iverson's lawyer, for telling reporters Friday that such a hearing was scheduled after Ellenson and Ford met in the judge's chambers to discuss Iverson's conviction.

"It was very clear he was not asking for a bond hearing," Ford said.

The judge said he told Ellenson on Friday to call him to make sure there was time on Monday's docket to consider whether Iverson should get a rehearing on his request for an appeal bond. Ford said that call never came, and he assumed Ellenson had dropped the matter.

"I obviously disagree with Judge Ford's rendition of the facts that led up to this moment," Ellenson said outside the courtroom.

Iverson is serving a five-year sentence at the Newport News City Farm. He and three other Bethel High School students were convicted in the brawl that left three people injured.

Supporters claim the four were unfairly singled out because they were black and the victims white. Supporters want Iverson released on bond during an appeal of his convictions. Iverson has been considered one of the nation's best college basketball prospects.

by CNB