THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, March 15, 1995 TAG: 9503150471
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JOE JACKSON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 84 lines
A judge dismissed a misdemeanor assault charge against welterweight boxing champion Pernell ``Sweetpea'' Whitaker on Tuesday after the alleged victim said he could not recall who threw the first punch during a fight at a Norfolk bar more than a year ago.
``Who threw the first blow?'' asked Judge William Oast, ending the General District Court hearing before Whitaker's witnesses could testify. ``No harm, no foul. Case dismissed.''
Anthony Foreman, the 30-year-old salesman who pressed charges, said in an interview after the hearing that he was disappointed in the justice system. ``I'm dumbfounded,'' he said. ``I was totally disregarded in court. . . . Since no nose was broke or head was popped, the judge said there was no wrong. This case wasn't taken seriously since Day One.''
Foreman swore out a warrant against Whitaker after the two allegedly fought on Jan. 30, 1994, at the Broadway nightclub on Virginia Beach Boulevard. Foreman testified that Whitaker humiliated him in front of a woman, then hit him when they walked outside to the parking lot. Lionel Hancock III, Whitaker's attorney, said after the hearing that Foreman fought with Whitaker's brother Raymond - not Pernell.
The case took so long to reach court because the city attorney refused to prosecute, records show. It was one of 11 misdemeanor assault cases that General District Judge Charles R. Cloud delayed until a prosecutor could be found to try them. Cloud accused Norfolk's prosecutors of discrimination for refusing to prosecute violent misdemeanor crimes against black and female victims in his court. Foreman is black.
Cloud did not preside at Tuesday's hearing because he was at a conference, court officials said. However, he asked former Norfolk prosecutor Gregory Underwood, one of several ``volunteer prosecutors,'' to represent Foreman because of prosecutors' refusal to participate.
Foreman testified that he and a friend were sitting in the nightclub with a woman that night when Whitaker asked the woman whether she was with Foreman. When the woman said they had just met, Whitaker started showing off, Foreman said.
``I was really surprised,'' Foreman testified. ``We'd grown up together. I thought we was friends. . . . I kept asking him, `What's wrong? You all right?' ''
But Whitaker allegedly didn't listen. Instead, Whitaker threw Foreman's hat in his face, balled up some paper and threw it in his face, then grabbed his nose and yelled ``Boy, I raised you,'' Foreman testified.
``I didn't know what to do,'' Foreman testified. ``I knew I couldn't beat him, but I couldn't allow him to humiliate me. I got pride, too.''
When they stepped outside, Foreman said, Whitaker poked a finger in his face. ``Before I knew it, we was fighting,'' Foreman said. Whitaker's brother joined in. Then the club's security guards broke up the fight, Foreman testified.
During the hearing, Whitaker stood in the courtroom, occasionally shaking his head as he listened to Foreman's testimony.
Oast dismissed the case before Whitaker's witnesses testified. The witnesses, Hancock said, would have testified that the two men were talking when Foreman became upset. ``So they decided to go outside and talk.''
When Whitaker's brother Raymond got outside, he saw ``Foreman in Whitaker's face,'' Hancock said. Raymond stepped between the two men, and Foreman started fighting with him, not Pernell Whitaker, Hancock said.
Tuesday's victory in court makes this a good month for Whitaker. On March 4 in Atlantic City, he wrested the World Boxing Association junior middleweight title from Julio Cesar Vasquez, his sixth title in four weight classes.
It is also the second time Whitaker has been charged in South Hampton Roads with misdemeanor assault and walked from court unscathed. In November 1991, Christopher A. Smith, 15, accused Whitaker of hitting him during a confrontation in Whitaker's Bellamy Woods neighborhood in Virginia Beach. Whitaker denied hitting the boy.
In February 1992, the charge was dismissed in Virginia Beach Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court after a closed hearing. Whitaker and Smith later shook hands outside the courtroom and called the incident a misunderstanding. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by LAWRENCE JACKSON, Staff
Pernell ``Sweetpea'' Whitaker leaves court Tuesday after an assault
charge against him was dismissed. The judge asked, ``Who threw the
first blow?'' The alleged victim couldn't say.
by CNB