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Videotape captures Mike Tyson in hotel melee
NEW YORK (CNN) -- A hotel security camera videotape obtained by CNN captures the latest out-of-the-ring, violent incident involving former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson. Tyson is charged with assault for his role in a brawl that took place early in the morning June 21 at the Brooklyn Marriott Hotel. He also is charged with disorderly conduct and harassment, for a total of seven misdemeanor counts, in the brawl, which involved two men from Pennsylvania. If convicted, Tyson, 37, who's been imprisoned twice in the past 11 years, could face up to another year in prison. Tyson pleaded not guilty at a June 24 arraignment, and his attorney said a plea bargain is not on the table. He is scheduled to appear in court September 30. "The only acceptable resolution in the case would be a complete dismissal," Tyson attorney Mel Sachs said. The other two men, purported autograph seekers Samuel Velez and Nelson Alvarez-Ramos, from Reading, Pennsylvania, also face criminal charges -- menacing and harassment -- for their behavior during the incident. The fight occurred as Tyson was leaving the hotel to go to the airport, and as Velez, 22, Velez's wife Thamara Ocasio, 27, and Alvarez-Ramos, 24, were returning from a night of partying. The hotel videotape does not answer whether or not Tyson acted in self-defense. The tape does not show what happened before the fighting began. The low quality tape frames the action from a distance and without sound. It shows the disturbance beginning at 5:32 a.m. There were nine witnesses to the fight, according to a law enforcement official. The criminal complaint filed by the Brooklyn district attorney's office against Tyson says Velez was punched in the face and body multiple times and suffered various bruises and cuts, some of which required stitches, while Alvarez-Ramos was also punched in the face and body, was thrown to the ground, and suffering bruises and cuts. Both men were treated at a Long Island hospital. Ocasio also was hit, according to the complaint. Medical personnel bandaged Tyson at the scene. Prosecutor John O'Mara said at Tyson's arraignment that the law allows a person to use what physical force is necessary to defend himself. "The charges are he went well beyond that," O'Mara said. Velez and Alvarez-Ramos made a court appearance Wednesday in Brooklyn Criminal Court. The hearing on charges of menacing and harassment was very brief, said their attorney, Earl Brown, and Judge Miriam Best granted an adjournment until August 27, when Brown said he will formally file a motion to dismiss the charges. Velez and Alvarez-Ramos, who are from Reading, Pennsylvania, will not be required to attend that hearing. Tyson, whose brushes with the law go back to his youth, served three years after a 1992 conviction for raping a woman in an Indianapolis hotel room and was imprisoned again briefly in 1999 for assaulting two people who had crashed their car into his.
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