Recently in crime Category

Mike Tyson cannot catch a break. largely from himself, it turns out.

Just after he spent time straightening up http://www.oprah.com/dated/oprahshow/oprahshow-20090912-mike-tyson and playing rock star to crowds in India, the law is once again in his life.

Police say the ear-chomping boxer has been detained on suspicion of battery following an alleged altercation with a photographer at Los Angeles International Airport. The photographer has accused Tyson of hitting him, causing him to fall to the ground and cut his forehead. He's being treated at a hospital.

Holcomb says The cops say both Tyson and the photographer want to press charges for misdemeanor battery and that Tyson has been compliant and cooperative with officers and is currently waiting in a holding cell at the airport.

In yet another case of knowing when to hold 'em, a Las Vegas court has pushed back a status check to Oct. 29 for former NBA all-star Antoine Walker, amid talk of possible repayment in an $822,500 casino gambling debt case.

Prosecutor Bernie Zadrowski said Wednesday he's been talking with Walker's lawyer, Jonathan Powell, about settling the criminal case.

Chicago native Walker, a brush with crime enthusiast, faces three felony bad check charges for gambling debts at three Las Vegas casinos. He did not have to appear at a Wednesday hearing.

Walker was arrested in July at a Lake Tahoe hotel.

Walker was a three-time all-star for the Boston Celtics and won a championship with the Miami Heat in 2006. He last played for the Minnesota Timberwolves in 2008.

AP contibuted

When "God Bless America" goes wrong - another item for the "I'm surprised this hasn't happened yet" file.

Three teenagers who say they were tossed from a New Jersey ballpark for sitting through the song "God Bless America" are suing the minor league Newark Bears - managed by White Sox fan favorite Rock Raines. The boys say their constitutional rights were violated when they were asked to leave Newark's Bears and Eagles Riverfront Stadium in June by Bear's president co-owner Thomas Cetnar.

The Newark Star-Ledger reports Cetnar got in the kids' grills and booted them:

"Nobody sits during the singing of 'God Bless America' in my stadium,'" Cetnar bellowed during the June 29 incident, according to the suit. "Now the get the (expletive) out of here."

The high schoolers, Bryce Gadye and Nilkumar Patel, both 17, and junior Shaan Mohammad Khan, 16, sued in federal court Friday seeking unspecified damages.

They say when they told Cetnar they had the right to remain seated, he cursed and had two security officers remove them from their seats behind home plate.

No chance the fine high school kids were popping off as that age group is known to do from time to time, right? Whatever the case, principles and beliefs aside, the next time you're at a minor league game in rough and tumble Newark the day before the anniversary of Sept. 11 and "God Bless America" comes on, maybe it would just be easier for everyone to stand? Just sayin'.

Chargers linebacker and Twitter enthusiast Shawne Merriman has been arrested for allegedly choking and restraining MTV reality show star Tila Tequila.

Several online reports suggest Tequila -- whose real name is Tila Nguyen -- called the cops on the former rookie of the year around 3:45 a.m. Authorities arrested the 25-year-old Merriman at his Poway home, north of San Diego,  on suspicion of battery and false imprisonment.

Gossip Web site TMZ.com has photos of the couple partying prior to the alleged incident at Stingaree nightclub in San Diego.

The Associated press is reporting that Tequila was taken to the hospital where her condition is unknown.

Let's keep the Brett Favre/goat imagery to the field and out of the trunk.

You're a good Minnesota Vikings fan, ready to do whatever you can to make a statement about Brett Favre hitting town as your team's new starting quarterback. You have lots of options:
1) Buy a jersey;
2) Get a Vikings inflatable chair for the bar in your wood-paneled basement;
3) Buy some Wrangley jeans and grow a nasty beard
4) Paint a goat purple and gold, carve a "4" into it and keep it in your car trunk on the way to slaughter it later.
OK, what do you choose?
If you're at least one Winona, MN., resident, the goat wins it. At least that's what the Winona Daily News reports, offering these unusual details - though no name on the woman:

A woman on her way to St. Paul really got the goat of auto repairman James Prusci. She went to Tires Plus in Winona Friday, wanting a belt replaced on her Chevy Malibu. While he was doing paperwork, she said she had a goat in her trunk. "A what?" he asked. She told him she planned to butcher it.

It was painted Minnesota Viking colors _ purple and gold _ with Brett Favre's No. 4 shaved on its side. Favre made his Vikings debut Friday in a preseason game.

Prusci called animal control, which took the goat to a local vet. He was renamed Brett and placed in foster care.

Why the goat? Some sort of sacrifice? Just dinner? Maybe she found out Purple People Eaters was just a nickname and went with the next best option. Who knows? It just kinda fits in with the Favre Theater that has been the 2009 NFL pre-season, though.

And it's an image Bears fans are praying to see this season: Favre the goat.

The only thing Plaxico Burress will be receiving for a while is three squares a day and a state-sponsored exercise program in the prison yard.

First, recently reinstated quarterback Mike Vick gets 19 months for dog fighting.

Then former Cleveland Brown Donte Stallworth gets 29 days in slam for DUI-fueled vehicular manslaughter.

Now former New York Giants star receiver Plaxico Burress gets 2 years for shooting himself in a nightclubs?

Jane, stop this crazy wheel of sentencing, I want to get off.

Burress pleaded guilty to a weapons charge and agreed to a two-year prison term for accidentally shooting himself at a Manhattan nightclub Thursday morning, ending a saga that's gone on nearly as long as he'll be in prison.

He pleaded guilty Thursday morning to one count of attempted criminal possession of a weapon, a lesser charge than he initially faced. Under a plea agreement, he agreed to a two-year prison sentence and two years of supervised release.

We now know the identity of the man suspected to have tossed a cup of beer on Shane Victorino's head during the fifth inning of Wednesday's Cubs-Phillies game.

Our colleague here at the Sun-Times, Mark Konkol, reports that Johnny Macchione of Bartlett turned himself in to police today. Chicago Police charged the 21-year-old Macchione Thursday night with one count each of battery and illegal conduct within a sports facility. Both are misdemeanor charges.

Police say Macchione threw a beer on Shane Victorino's head during the fifth inning of Wednesday night's blowout. A fan was immediately hauled away -- but it was the wrong fan. News sites and blogs splashed Macchione's photo up all day, and he turned himself in to Belmont area detectives this afternoon.

Deadspin shares with us this photo of the now-infamous Cub fan:  

Celebrity gossip site TMZ.com has some rough footage - see the video here - of disgraced quarterback and former dog fighting enthusiast Michael Vick strolling around O'Hare Airport last night.

While Vick is still one of millions on the unemployment rolls, he's madly searching for an NFL job and there have been rumors of Bears interest in the electrifying signal caller. But

TMZ quoted Jim Christman, media services manager for the Bears, as saying Vick is not in town to meet with the Bears and he is definitely not joining the team.

And Bears beat guy Brad Biggs has sources telling him there was charity work on the agenda, not a Bears date for Vick.

So file that under the "never say never" list of potential moves.

After being suspended indefinitely by the NFL after serving nearly two years in a dog-fighting scheme, Vick was conditionally reinstated by commissioner Roger Goodell last month and cleared to sign with a team, but thus far there have been no takers.

On Tuesday, Vick's agent, Joel Segal, visited Washington Redskins camp, but said: "No. No chance," when asked about the possibility of Vick signing with Washington.

The Redskins are among 26 of the NFL's 32 teams that have said they have no interest in signing Vick, although Vick's NFL-appointed mentor, former Indianapolis Colts coach Tony Dungy, said several coached have contacted him to talk about the player.

Segal, in an interview with ESPN 980, said he is "very optimistic" that Vick would sign with an NFL team soon. There are a lot of teams interested. ... It's not a matter of if, but when."

Donte Stallworth at his plea deal sentencing Tuesday in Miami.

Cleveland Browns wide receiver Donte' Stallworth took full responsibility for killing a pedestrian while driving drunk in Florida and agreed to plead guilty to DUI manslaughter in Miami today.

The price paid for taking a man's life while driving drunk? Thirty days.

To put that in perspective, Michael Vick, who is currently serving house arrest in his Virginia home, was originally sentenced to nearly two years for running a dogfighting ring. Abusing animals is a heinous crime and this is not intended to downplay that at all, but a man's life was lost through criminal irresponsibility and Stallworth works a deal that gets him a short month in jail and two years of house arrest and eight years of probation.

How is this justice in any way again? Stallworth had been facing 15 years and got off by any measure with an incredibly light sentence. Consider this story of a 17-year-old facing the same circumstances who came away with a 24-year sentence.

A Freightliner truck, but not the one Randy Starks was driving.

Miami Dolphins defensive end Randy Starks has been charged with using a Freightliner truck to hit a police officer who tried to stop the vehicle on foot.

Miami Beach Police say the officer tried to stop the 25-year-old player when he was driving a truck packed with 13 people early Sunday in heavy traffic, including a young woman riding in his lap, as the large vehicle navigated through bumper-to-bumper traffic in South Beach.

The vehicle is meant for four people.

Police say Starks kept slowly moving forward even as the officer was beside the truck. They say Starks swerved the vehicle slightly, hitting the officer in the chest and pinning him against another vehicle.

The officer wasn't injured, but Starks was charged with aggravated battery.

Starks remained in a Miami jail Sunday afternoon. A message left at his agent's office was not immediately returned.

CNN detailed the incident with this police report:

In the report, the officer recalled pursuing the truck on foot for about a half-block and pounding on the rear driver's-side window, but it kept moving. The officer caught up to the truck again, and it stopped after the officer pounded on the window again, the report said.

"I slowly approached the side door and just as I reached it the vehicle accelerated and started moving forward and slightly to the left," the unidentified officer writes in the report. "The vehicle's path caused the driver's side of the vehicle to strike me in the chest pushing me back and pinning me against a vehicle stopped in traffic in the northbound lane."

Starks was released Sunday on $10,000 bond.

Dolphins spokesman Harvey Greene said the team was "only recently made aware of the situation. Since we are in the process of gathering information we have no comment."

There was no immediate comment from the league on the incident.

Starks, a defensive tackle out of Maryland, is in his sixth year in the league.