Ibeabuchi’s bail reduced in sex case

Bill Gang

Friday, Nov. 5, 1999 | 10:39 a.m.

Embattled heavyweight boxer Ikemufula "Ike" Ibeabuchi may get his chance to return to the ring in the not-too-distant future.

Bail was reduced Thursday from $3 million to $750,000 for Ibeabuchi on sexual assault and kidnapping charges involving the alleged violent molestation of an outcall entertainer he had summoned to his Strip hotel room.

The defendant's attorney, Richard Wright, indicated that the boxer soon could be free despite contentions by deputy district attorneys Mary Kay Holthus and Christopher Lally that Ibeabuchi is a danger to society.

If Ibeabuchi does post bail, District Judge Joseph Bonaventure ruled he must remain in Las Vegas on house arrest, surrender his passport and have no contact with outcall entertainment services.

Wright said that the victim's career as an outcall entertainer and the outcall business in general -- which police have alleged is nothing more than a front for prostitution -- will be a major focus of the trial.

"This case is about selling sex," he said. "It is about an illegal business and the perceived consent about what a customer thinks he is going to get."

Wright said the "dispute was over timing and method of payment" and Ibeabuchi's belief that he had a contract with an outcall agency named "Room Service" that wasn't fulfilled.

Holthus countered that the case involves the sexual assault of a 21-year-old woman after Ibeabuchi refused to pay for the nude dancing that she was summoned to perform and her job should not be an issue in the case.

The prosecutor alleged that Ibeabuchi was involved in similar conduct in other states, sometimes involving outcall entertainers.

Wright quickly pointed out that Texas authorities only charged Ibeabuchi with a misdemeanor and Arizona authorities declined to prosecute the burly boxer.

Holthus wants to bring in some of those other women to testify against Ibeabuchi but Bonaventure has not yet approved that request.

While the judge said the allegations "that he tried to rape four women in four towns within a year" concern him, he said that bail should not be set so high that it amounts to no bail.

Yet he indicated he wanted to keep it high enough and install enough controls that Ibeabuchi could not flee to his homeland of Nigeria.

Wright had asked Bonaventure to dismiss the charges -- which carry a possible life prison term for Ibeabuchi if he is convicted -- because a justice of the peace had not allowed the victim to be questioned about her sexual past and business practices.

He argued that while a state law prohibits such questions of rape victims in general, it does not apply to women involved in the sex industry.

Bonaventure rejected the motion.

There are additional charges against Ibeabuchi alleging he attacked a corrections officer at the Clark County Detention Center and prosecutors pointed to them as a reason to keep the boxer behind bars.

But Wright said the circumstances were a result of frustration and misunderstanding more than uncontrollable violence.

Ibeabuchi currently is scheduled to stand trial Dec. 6 but that date is expected to be postponed.