Newz Forum: BOXING: IRON MIKE BRAWLERS OFF HOOK

NY Post - March 24, 2004
The men who brawled with Mike Tyson at the Brooklyn Marriott last year won the fight in court yesterday.

Samuel Velez, 22, and Nestor Alvarez-Ramos, 25, smiled as they left Brooklyn criminal court with their lawyer, Wilson LaFaurie, after the menacing charges against them were dropped.

"They finally realized that we had nothing to do with it," Velez, who suffered the most severe injuries during the brawl, told The Post.

"My only shock was that Mr. Tyson did not go to jail," said Velez, who suffered a gash to the head during the incident.

The two fans say Alvarez-Ramos was just trying to shake the former heavyweight boxing champ's hand in the early morning of June 21, 2003, when the champ went ballistic at the downtown Brooklyn hotel.

Tyson, 37, struck a well-publicized plea bargain with prosecutors last month. He agreed to plead guilty to disorderly conduct, to go through six months of counseling and to work with kids, in exchange for the dismissal of misdemeanor assault and harassment charges.

Associated Press - March 25, 2004


NEW YORK (AP) - Charges were dropped against two men accused of threatening Mike Tyson last year after he refused to give them his autograph.

Samuel Velez and Nestor Alvarez-Ramos had been charged with menacing and harassment in the June 21 brawl with the ex-heavyweight champion outside a Brooklyn hotel.

Tyson, who was also charged, made a plea deal last month and did not plan to testify against the men, the Brooklyn district attorney's office said on Thursday. Without his cooperation, there was no way of proving he was threatened.

Tyson told police the fight began after the men asked him for an autograph and, when he declined, they warned him they were armed, with one saying, ``You've got fists, we've got guns.''

A hotel security videotape captured Tyson pushing one of the men and punching the other before pausing to remove his coat.

Tyson has been teaching boxing to children at Gleason's Gym in Brooklyn as ordered in a 100-hour community-service sentence handed down in exchange for his pleading guilty to disorderly conduct.

The judge also ordered him to attend six months of counseling.

Tyson, whose last fight was a 49-second knockout of Clifford Etienne in Memphis, Tennessee, is preparing for a return to the ring this spring.