THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, March 1, 1995 TAG: 9503010488
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARC DAVIS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 82 lines
Basketball phenom Allen Iverson, master of the fast break, zipped past reporters, faked his way around TV cameramen and slipped into a courtroom Tuesday to clear his name.
The 19-year-old Georgetown University freshman came to appeal his three felony convictions stemming from a 1993 Hampton bowling alley brawl.
Throughout, he remained true to the media-shy philosophy of his coach, John Thompson. Iverson eluded photographers as he strode quickly into the state Court of Appeals, then foiled them again as he ducked out a side door when the case was over.
He said nothing to reporters or to the three judges hearing his appeal. For 30 minutes, he sat quietly in the courtroom's front spectator row, flanked by Georgetown assistant coach Craig Esherick and lawyer Lawrence Woodward.
His lawyers did all the talking, in court and out.
Iverson, a basketball star from Hampton's Bethel High School, was convicted of three counts of ``maiming by mob'' after a racially tinged free-for-all in a Hampton bowling alley in February 1993.
Iverson and three other black bowlers were accused of throwing chairs at a group of white bowlers. Iverson was sentenced to five years in prison. He spent about four months behind bars, then received clemency - but not a pardon - from Gov. L. Douglas Wilder on Dec. 30,, 1993.
On the surface, it would seem Iverson had no reason to revisit the case. He is now one of the hottest college basketball stars in America - ``the most exciting unproven teenager I've seen since (Lew) Alcinder,'' wrote Washington Post columnist Tom Boswell - and is sure to get a multimillion-dollar pro contract.
So why appeal?
``He still has felony convictions on his record, and it's important to him to have them removed,'' Iverson's lead attorney, Thomas Shuttleworth, said Tuesday. ``It's not preventing him from playing basketball, but he realizes there's more to life than playing basketball. He wants to vote and do all the things ordinary people do.''
In court, Iverson's lawyers argued there was no mob in the bowling alley that night, as defined by state law, and even if there was, Iverson was not part of it.
``The commonwealth hasn't established what this so-called mob was,'' attorney Lisa O'Donnell said.
Two of the three judges harped on the issue, over and over, questioning Assistant Attorney General Robert Anderson.
``There's no question there was a brawl,'' Judge James W. Benton said. ``The question is whether a mob was formed. Not whether there was a fight, not whether blacks were fighting whites, but whether a mob was formed.''
Judge Joseph E. Baker made the same point.
``There is no question the defendants were guilty of assault and battery. No question in my mind,'' Baker said in a separate hearing just before Iverson's, in an appeal by Iverson's co-defendants. ``The question is whether they were guilty of assault and battery or being part of a mob.''
Iverson's lawyers conceded that there was testimony during the trial that Iverson threw a chair that injured someone at the bowling alley. But, the lawyers argued, that victim was not one of the three named in Iverson's indictment. Therefore, Iverson should not have been convicted.
Judge Baker said, ``I'm not sure, if you take the evidence most favorable to the commonwealth, you could describe this as a fight. A fight resulted . . the commonwealth, an assault.''
The judges did not rule Tuesday, and probably will not rule for several weeks or months. They could overturn Iverson's convictions and end the case, order a new trial, or uphold the convictions.
The hearing ended on a bizarre note.
As the judges descended from their bench for the customary handshakes with lawyers on both sides, Iverson moved forward and offered his hand, too. Judge Baker froze, frowned, then turned to Shuttleworth. ``That's show business and I didn't appreciate it!'' Baker said angrily.
Baker retreated to his chamber. Iverson slipped out the courtroom's side door. ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]
A successful appeal of three felony convictions, from a bowling
alley fight, would clear Allen Iverson's name.
by CNB