THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, July 6, 1995 TAG: 9507060386
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: NEWPORT NEWS DAILY PRESS
DATELINE: HAMPTON LENGTH: Short : 45 lines
Two weeks after an appeals court overturned criminal charges against Allen Iverson, Attorney General James S. Gilmore III's office Wednesday said it would not pursue further legal action against the college basketball player.
The decision whether to prosecute Iverson again for his role in a bowling alley brawl Feb. 14, 1993, rests with Hampton Commonwealth's Attorney Christopher W. Hutton.
Hutton was on vacation Wednesday and will not return to the office until Monday, said J.C. O'Shields, office manager for the commonwealth's attorney.
``The matter is under consideration and some decision will be made after Mr. Hutton returns Monday,'' O'Shields said.
The case against Iverson gained national attention amid accusations by many of the basketball player's supporters that he had been targeted for punishment because he was black.
Though the brawl included more than 40 people fighting and throwing chairs - apparently after a white bowler used a racial slur - all of the people cited by the prosecution as victims are white and all of those charged with crimes are black. Hutton's office initially prosecuted Iverson, then a highly touted athlete at Bethel High School in Hampton, with mob violence. Iverson was convicted and spent four months of his sentence at the City Farm before then-Gov. Douglas Wilder freed him, with a grant of conditional clemency.
The three-judge panel of the state's Court of Appeals ruled two weeks ago that the charges against Iverson and two co-defendants had to be reversed because there was insufficient evidence that they were part of a mob scene at the bowling alley.
After his release from jail, Iverson completed his high school requirements and went on to star in his freshman year last season with the Georgetown Hoyas. He was named Big East freshman of the year and the league's best defensive player.
KEYWORDS: ASSAULT INJURIES TRIAL by CNB