Tyson's lawyers weigh options

WASHINGTON -- If a no-contest plea got Mike Tyson a year in jail, what would a guilty verdict bring?

That's the crux of the discussion inside the offices of Tyson's lawyers as they consider whether to risk an appeal of the former heavyweight champion's sentence for assaulting two motorists after a fender bender in suburban Gaithersburg, Md., in August.

Tyson pleaded no-contest -- meaning he neither contested the charges nor admitted guilt -- in December. His one-year sentence, levied Friday by District Court Judge Stephen Johnson, could mean the end of the career of the 32-year-old boxer, once on course to become one of the greatest heavyweights.

One corrections department official, however, raised the possibility that Tyson might be allowed to train, and perhaps fight out of town, while serving his sentence.

"Since boxing is his employment and his job, we'd have to verify where he is and that he remained drug- and alcohol-free," Russ Hamill, acting director of the Montgomery County (Md.) Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, told The Washington Post.

He would be eligible for the work-release program within 60 days, the Post reported today.

The lawyers must decide within 30 days of the sentencing whether Tyson's career would be further jeopardized by an appeal to Circuit Court, where a judge could then decide not to accept the no-contest plea and order a trial by jury.

If found guilty, Tyson would not only have another conviction on his record, but would again be subject to Maryland sentencing guidelines that call for a jail term of three to seven years.

In addition, a conviction would worsen Tyson's standing in Indiana and Nevada. Indiana authorities must decide whether Tyson violated his probation for a 1992 rape conviction, and Nevada boxing authorities could revoke Tyson's boxing license for the second time in two years.

In Indiana, Judge Patricia Gifford, who presided over Tyson's rape trial, is awaiting paperwork from Maryland before ruling on whether he violated probation.

The Post also reported that Tyson's Indiana probation officer, George Walker, suggested that the Maryland jail sentence would not automatically lead to a probation violation hearing in Indiana.

"Somewhere along the way, we might get everyone together and say, 'Hey, do we really want a big circus in town to do something with him, or can we do something without a hearing and save a lot of taxpayer money?"' the newspaper quoted Walker as saying. "There are different ways of working on it."

The risk of an appeal was discussed at length by Tyson's lawyers on Monday, a source inside the office of lawyer Paul Kemp told the Associated Press on condition of anonymity. Neither Kemp nor Tyson's other attorney, Robert Greenberg, returned calls.

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