Columnist Dean Juipe: Is it Tyson’s luck, friends or own doing?

Dean Juipe

Wednesday, Oct. 3, 2001 | 9:43 a.m.

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

You reach the point where simple disbelief is the most prevalent reaction.

Commandos have surrounded Mike Tyson's house? Another rape allegation? Another bust?

When or will this kind of stuff ever end?

Tyson is in Denmark this week for an Oct. 13 fight in Copenhagen with the Danish Pastry, Brian Nielsen. But last Thursday, while still at his home in Las Vegas, he was rousted by swat teams and police as they searched his palatial residence for evidence of a sexual crime.

The case has been sealed, so no further information is apt to be forthcoming until the authorities either file a charge against the former heavyweight champion or dismiss the allegations as groundless.

For those keeping track, the last two sexual allegations directed Tyson's way were eventually dismissed. The most recent, a couple of months ago in California's San Bernardino County, made for a few headlines before it went kaput. Its predecessor, brought by a woman who works at a Las Vegas strip club, was found to be equally flimsy and was dismissed as well.

Tyson is a magnet for undesirable publicity, to be sure. And, given a disruptive past that includes a three-year prison stint for assaulting a would-be Miss America at a beauty pageant, one could assume any and all allegations of wrongdoing directed his way may have some merit. Yet, by the same token, there is no shortage of gold diggers looking for a quick buck and any assertions that target Tyson need to be taken with a grain of salt by both the police and public.

We're presuming he's innocent, of course. But this seemingly endless succession of allegations and police actions directed toward Tyson makes for a newspaper conundrum: Should we even keep running these stories? Where do we draw the line? How do we balance innuendo, a juicy topic, the public's need to know and the central subject's right to a certain level of privacy?

The answer, to date, is that even a guilt-free celebrity who is warranting police attention is fair game. Although it does not appear his entourage is to blame this time, Tyson wouldn't be the first pro fighter (or athlete) whose greatest fault was allowing a bevy of hangers-on, lowlife characters and old pals from the 'hood to sponge off him and occupy his home.

This has nothing to do with Tyson, but I recall the brother of another boxer once telling me how shocked he was to walk into his brother's home and find a bunch of guys sitting around talking trash and smoking pot. He said his brother was in another room and was indifferent to his friends' deeds, yet guilt by association carries some weight and this might very well be Tyson's No. 1 problem.

Either his "friends," his bad luck or his inability to control himself with women have made him a marked man.

If it's his friends, he ought to get rid of them.

If it's his luck, perhaps he's due for a reversal.

But if it's of his own doing, the police in full combat regalia may forever be outside his door, eagerly awaiting and with TV cameras rolling.