Columnist Dean Juipe: Ibeabuchi case heads toward trial

Dean Juipe

Monday, Sept. 17, 2001 | 9:35 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.

Among America's most cherished rights is that of a fair and speedy trial.

Yet boxing fans, in particular, may be wondering what has become of former heavyweight contender Ike Ibeabuchi, who has yet to go to trial but has been held since a July, 1999, arrest on charges of kidnapping and sexual assault in Las Vegas.

Ibeabuchi, 29, was to have had his trial begin today in Clark County District Court. But his most recent attorney, the court-appointed Catherine Woolf of the public defender's office, asked for and received a continuance.

The trial is now set for Nov. 13 with Woolf and co-counsel Jeff Banks handling the defense.

Woolf, who was appointed to Ibeabuchi's case Aug. 20, has seen her client only once and had a scheduled visit to see him this past weekend canceled in the aftermath of the New York and Washington terrorist attacks.

Ibeabuchi, a native of Nigeria and once a resident of New York, is being held at the Lakes Crossing correctional facility in Sparks.

His record in the ring is an impressive 20-0 with 15 knockouts.

His record outside the ring is somewhat despicable: the sexual-assault charges here derive from an incident at the Mirage in which he allegedly detained and then assaulted a call girl; a similar accusation deriving from an incident in Arizona has also yet to be resolved; and his personal antics, even before he was arrested, were open to question after firsthand reports of volatile behavior at restaurants and in business situations.

"He's big and intimidating," Woolf said of her initial reaction to meeting Ibeabuchi. "Although I didn't have any feelings of aggression toward me, he's still in good shape and it took a couple of minutes before I was completely relaxed with him."

She went on to categorize Ibeabuchi as "quiet, very soft spoken ... thoughtful, almost" while adding that "maybe that's because of his medication."

Ah, the medication. It's why this case with Ibeabuchi has taken so long to get to trial.

His initial attorney, Richard Wright of Las Vegas (who was retained at a cost of $150,000 by Top Rank Boxing promoter Bob Arum), spent the better part of a year arguing that Ibeabuchi was not competent to stand trial. Psychologists representing both Wright and the district attorney's office examined Ibeabuchi several times before Judge Joseph Bonaventure ruled that Ibeabuchi ought to be medicated, and forcefully if need be.

Sources say Ibeabuchi was so adamantly opposed to being medicated (with mood stabilizers and anti-psychotic drugs) that armed guards were required to accompany the physician or nurse who was administering the medication to him in his prison cell.

Medicated, Ibeabuchi is now perceived to be legally competent to stand trial, or so a three-doctor panel has ruled.

Wright has removed himself from Ibeabuchi's defense (in part because Arum decided to distance himself from the fighter) and a second, Arizona-based attorney who once showed interest in representing the fighter has also excused himself. That left the public defender's office to handle the case.

"I have an enormous file in a big box to go through," Woolf said. "The volume of pleadings that have been filed just on his mental issues alone is staggering and I haven't had time to read them all.

"This is a big case."

At its root, Ibeabuchi is accused of calling an exotic dancer to his Mirage hotel room and then detaining and attempting to rape her. He faces multiple felony charges that include first-degree kidnapping.

"He's looking at a substantial period of prison time even if he's convicted on one of the sexual-assault charges, and there are four against him," Woolf said. "Given the minimums with first-degree kidnapping or kidnapping with no substantial bodily harm, he's looking at a considerable length of jail time.

"He could very well spend the rest of his life in prison."

Woolf added that "I've gotten the sense that he has always felt he was innocent," and Ibeabuchi's mother told Sun court reporter Kim Smith the same thing in a telephone interview earlier this year.

Nonetheless, when the case eventually comes to trial Woolf expects to have her hands full. Beyond the facts of the accusations and the elements of law, there is the matter of Ibeabuchi's celebrity.

Asked whether the incarcerated fighter's notoriety and prominence as a man who was ranked as the No. 2 contender in the heavyweight division by the International Boxing Federation (and who would have been involved in a world championship fight by now had he not ran afoul of the law) was apt to be a help or a hindrance in the eyes of a jury, Woolf didn't hesitate to respond.

"I think it hurts him," she said in a matter-of-fact tone, leaving us to surmise that Ibeabuchi will head into the biggest fight of his life as something of an underdog against a revenge-minded judiciary.

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