Woman tells different story on stand than one told to cops

Friday, July 29, 2005 | 8:42 a.m.

Did the mother of three of Floyd Mayweather Jr.'s children lie to police about being kicked and beaten by the WBC lightweight champion outside a nightclub, or was she lying in court Thursday?

That's what a jury must eventually decide as they continue to hear evidence today in Mayweather's battery trial.

Josie Harris' story on the witness stand Thursday contradicted what she told police about what took place in Mayweather's car outside the SRO Club on Dec. 27, 2003.

Harris, who met Mayweather through a mutual friend after the boxer moved to Las Vegas following the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, laughed Thursday as she said she "made up" the story she offered in a voluntary statement to police.

Instead of Mayweather pulling her hair, hitting her and pulling her out of the car and kicking her as she had told police the night of the incident, Harris testified in court she was the one "acting crazy."

Harris said she was drunk, on a half pill of Ecstacy and dancing with friends at the club when Mayweather called her to say he had the money she asked for earlier in the day.

She said she went to the car parked in front of the club's front door, but instead of simply getting the money from Mayweather, she began asking him why he ended their relationship and why he didn't want to have a family with her.

Harris specifically began asking why Mayweather was seeing another woman, and asked "what she had that I didn't."

Harris said Mayweather reacted by "acting nonchalant, giggling and playing with the radio" while she opened up to him and told Mayweather how she felt about him.

She said Mayweather just told her she was "drunk, emotional, and to go back into the club and go home." Harris said her anger level slowly rose and she started pointing in Mayweather's face and "kicking the windshield like it was the other girl's face."

She said the heel of her boot shattered the glass and she began "basically trying to fight him, pulling on him, punching on him telling him he was wrong for what he did to me."

Harris said she wasn't afraid of Mayweather fighting back because he was a "big teddy bear" when it came to her and he would "never hit me." She did say Mayweather pulled her out of the car, yelled at her and then drove off.

When she went back into the club, she said, she began thinking "oh (expletive) what did I do.'

"I didn't know if he (Mayweather) had called the police or if he was outside the club waiting for me with the police," Harris testified.

It was at this moment Harris said she tried to "beat him (Mayweather) to the punch" and call 911.

Deputy District Attorney Alexandria Chrysanthis then played the 911 call Harris made the night of the incident. In the call Harris says "my babies' father just beat me up."

When the 911 dispatcher asked if the man is still at the scene, Harris responded "I don't know if he's still there. That's why I'm scared to go outside."

After the tape was played Harris tried to laugh off the call and the written statement she gave to police officers who arrived on the scene.

After Chrysanthis attempted to refer to specific points in Harris' statement, Harris smiled and said, "I don't remember what I wrote down because it wasn't true."

"Yes, I made it all up," Harris said.

Harris only agreed to testify after being granted immunity. She said she did so because she knew making false representations to the police, kicking the window and possessing Esctacy were all crimes she could be prosecuted for.

If it can be proved she was lying on the witness stand, however, her immunity will not cover the felony charge of perjury.

In opening arguments Chrysanthis said the case against Mayweather was one "about power and control and the price of love."

She told the jury Harris would take the stand and tell them Mayweather never hit her on the night of the incident, which the prosecutor said was an example that "the cost of love is not cheap."

Mayweather's trial had been on hold for a day after District Judge David Wall ordered a new juror pool was needed in the case after the first 50-member pool failed to include any black members.

Wall's decision came in reaction to Wright's motion to strike the pool because "it's not representative of a cross section of the community.'

The new 74-member juror pool brought to court for Mayweather's trial consisted of six black prospective jurors. One black male ultimately was selected for the jury.