Fight fixer avoids jail time

Jace Radke

Tuesday, Dec. 7, 2004 | 9:08 a.m.

Convicted fight-fixer Richard Mittleman has been sentenced to six months of home detention and three years of probation in connection with a rigged fight at Paris Las Vegas on Aug. 12, 2000.

Mittleman, 61, of Oak Park, Ill., was sentenced Monday by Magistrate Judge Robert Jones, and was also ordered to pay a $2,000 fine. He must perform 250 hours of community service and wear a monitoring device.

Mittleman, who managed Oscar De La Hoya in 1992, took the stand in a federal sports bribery trial earlier this year and testified that he and promoter Robert Mitchell arranged for boxer Thomas Williams to take a dive in a fight against Richard Melito Jr. at Paris Las Vegas.

"Mitchell did not want a real fight," Mittleman said during his testimony. "He wanted someone who would lay down for Melito."

Mittleman cooperated with federal prosecutors in the case, and pleaded guilty to helping to fix the Melito fight, as well as a Williams fight in Denmark in March 2000 against Brian Nielson. In addition, Mittleman admitted to attempting to bribe an assistant U.S. attorney and a federal judge to try to get the indictment against Williams dropped.

He faced up to 20 years in prison and $500,000 in fines for the various bribery charges.

Williams and Mitchell were convicted of conspiracy and sports bribery, and each faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. A jury found that Mitchell, 42, spent more than $70,000 to bribe fighters to take dives against Melito and found that Williams, 35, had accepted more than $5,000 to lose his bout against Melito.

Williams and Mitchell have appealed their convictions, alleging that prosecutors should not have been able to introduce evidence having to do with the Nielsen fight. A hearing has not been set on the appeal, and both men are scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge James Mahan on Feb. 7.com