Columnist Dean Juipe: Jury duty? ‘Pick me, pick me’

Dean Juipe

Monday, Feb. 28, 2000 | 10:29 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@vegas.com or 259-4084.

If you've ever been called for jury duty in Clark County you know the ritual: Sit among the 60 or so who have been summoned and wait as the jury panels for two or three upcoming trials are filled.

It's clinical and monotonous, with very few words spoken and everyone's eyes on the clock.

Having gone through the procedure virtually every other year for the past 15 years, those of us who keep being called haven't so much acquired a knack for dodging actual jury service as we have refined an ability for remaining nondescript.

But next Monday, March 6, in the jury-pool room at the courthouse, guess who's going to stand up and say "Pick me" to the attorneys representing both sides in the case of the People vs. Ikemufula Ibeabuchi?

Can a sportswriter cover a trial from the jury box?

We may soon find out.

Ike Ibeabuchi is a fairly well-known heavyweight fighter with a 20-0 record and championship potential. But he's also a troubled man who has been arrested more than once for sexual assault, although charges were not filed in one of the two instances.

A jury will be impaneled March 6 and Ibeabuchi's trial is scheduled to begin two days later. Most people familiar with the case, including his financial benefactor, promoter Bob Arum, believe the native of Nigeria will be found guilty and be given more than token jail time.

Prospective jurors, however, can have no preconceived opinion regarding a presumption of guilt or innocence, and that's how this prospective juror is approaching it.

Ibeabuchi got himself in this pickle last July 22 when he responded to an ad for an out-call service and agreed to pay a woman $150 to visit him in his Mirage hotel room. While a simple business transaction could have taken place and Ibeabuchi and the woman could have hit it off and done who knows what, their relationship hit an immediate snag when the boxer was told he couldn't pay by check.

Short of loose change, he "flew into a rage" according to the woman and, at the very least, he prohibited her from leaving in a timely and professional manner.

Also apparently being admitted into evidence is an earlier arrest in Arizona that involved Ibeabuchi and another call girl. Although "prior bad acts" never seem to be admissible in such TV staples as "Law & Order," in reality they are admissible "if they show a pattern of behavior."

While Arum has never utilized Ibeabuchi in the ring, he's paying for the fighter's legal defense under the pretense that the Nigerian will be able to resume his career one of these days. In fact, had Ibeabuchi had some cash on him that night in July and hadn't been arrested, he would be fighting Saturday on the undercard of a show Arum is promoting at Mandalay Bay.

Instead, Ibeabuchi runs the risk of joining another recently incarcerated heavyweight, former world champ Michael Dokes, in one of the state pens.

Mike: "What you in for?"

Ike: "Wanting to pay for sex with a check."

Mike: "How was your jury?"

Ike: "Like mannequins, except for one guy who wrote down every word that was said."

Mike: "Oh, that reporter who keeps being called for jury duty?"

Ike: "Yeah, I guess."

Mike: "It's almost Machiavellian."

Ike: "Yes, quite."