Lack of medication may have led to Tyson jail incident

Mike Tyson faces a disciplinary hearing at the Montgomery County Maryland jail later this week after he lost his temper Friday night and threw a television set against a wall in a communal room at the facility. Depending on the outcome of the hearing, Tyson could have some privileges, such as visitation, restricted.

The incident also complicates negotiations for a reduction in the one-year jail sentence that Tyson drew on Feb. 5 for assaulting two men after a minor traffic accident in Gaithersburg, Md., last Aug. 31. Tyson, 32, pleaded no contest to the two misdemeanor assault charges on Dec. 1.

Tyson has been confined to an isolated cell since Friday's incident.

Eric Seleznow, a spokesman for the detention center, said the former heavyweight champion will go before members of the correctional staff for a hearing to determine disciplinary action. Seleznow said it appeared that Tyson's act was not directed at any inmates or members of the staff.

A person close to Tyson said he had not had his prescribed dosage of Zoloft since last Wednesday. Tyson has taken the antidepressant every day for the last four months -- except the week of his fight against Francois Botha on Jan. 16.

The person said Tyson's medication was cut off because of a dispute over his treatment between the detention center psychiatrist and Tyson's personal psychiatrist, Dr. Richard Goldberg, who heads the Georgetown University Medical School Department of Psychiatry.

The institution's psychiatrist wanted to examine Tyson before allowing him to continue taking Zoloft, but Tyson refused because he was already under the care of Goldberg, who has been seeing Tyson weekly since he went to jail.

Seleznow said he could neither confirm nor deny that there was a dispute between the two psychiatrists or that Tyson was off his medication because he had not spoken to the jail's psychiatrist.

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