Jermain Taylor: Arrest Warrant Issued For Boxer Over Alleged Assault
Middleweight boxer Jermain Taylor is in trouble with the law yet again: an Arkansas judge has issued an arrest warrant for Taylor following an incident at the rehab center where he’s been confined, TMZ is reporting.
On March 13, another resident at the rehab facility approached Taylor with an open hand – apparently expecting a friendly handshake from the boxer. What he got instead was a beatdown: Taylor allegedly slapped the resident’s hand away, then beat him severely. The victim was sent to the intensive care unit for his injuries.
Jermain has been confined to the Oasis Renweal Center in Little Rock since March, according to Sport Act. A judge ordered Taylor sent there following two criminal incidents in a matter of months.
In August 2014, Taylor was arrested following a domestic violence incident in which he shot his cousin, Tyrone Hinton, according to ESPN. Hinton suffered critical injuries in the shooting; Taylor was charged with first-degree domestic battery and aggravated assault, both felonies.
Then in January 2015, Taylor was accused of firing his gun and threatening to shoot a family during Little Rock’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Parade.
Following the two incidents, Taylor was confined to the rehab facility instead of prison. Apparently, his stay at the rehab facility has not been without its problems, even prior to the May 13 incident; in April, a judge rescinded Taylor’s permission to leave the facility to attend church, although the circumstances surrounding that order are not clear.
Jermain Taylor’s mounting legal problems have spelled trouble for his boxing career, too. After the January shooting incident, the International Boxing Federation (IBF) stripped him of his titles, and cancelled his defense against former light-middleweight champion Sergio Mora. Instead, boxers David Lemieux and Hassan N’Dam will compete in June for Taylor’s former title.
Taylor’s history of legal problems illustrates a larger problem in the world of boxing, says The Guardian writer Patrick Connor: that is, what the sport does to the boxers’ brains.
“It’s a situation where, stripped of flowery language, we eagerly anticipate the for-hire obliteration of brain cells, memory and life between two men who could perhaps really use what little they have remaining.”
Taylor’s attorney, Christian Alexander, calls the allegations against his client “frivolous,” and says they’re an attempt to bring down a professional athlete.
It is not clear, as of this post, whether or not Jermain Taylor is in police custody following the issuing of his arrest warrant.
[Image courtesy of: Getty Images/Mathias Kern]
