Boxer sent back to jail

Bill Gang

Tuesday, Feb. 1, 2000 | 10:35 a.m.

Heavyweight boxer Ikemufula "Ike" Ibeabuchi's career is back on hold because he is back in jail.

Ibeabuchi had been on house arrest on charges he sexually assaulted an outcall dancer in his Strip hotel room when he was again arrested Friday after Arizona authorities filed sexual assault charges over a similar incident there. That two-year-old case involved a 31-year-old outcall dancer there who is now a police cadet in New Mexico.

Ibeabuchi was in District Judge Joseph Bonaventure's courtroom Monday for a pre-trial hearing on a prosecution motion to allow details of the Arizona and another Nevada case involving allegations of sexual misconduct with yet another outcall dancer into his Feb. 22 trial.

The judge ruled the evidence should be admissible, handing the defense a setback.

But Bonaventure said he has no problem with Ibeabuchi returning to house arrest in Las Vegas if he posts the $100,000 bail that was set in the Arizona case -- leaving the door open for the boxer to again return to the ring.

If he is convicted of sexual assault, however, that career would be in jeopardy because the lightest sentence would require him to serve five years behind bars before eligibility for parole.

The incidents that Bonaventure ruled are admissible evidence include a Dec. 23, 1998 encounter with an outcall entertainer from the firm "Room Service" who testified Monday that Ibeabuchi wouldn't let her leave his hotel room and forced her into a sexual act.