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 "I take responsibility for my actions," Tyson told the judge. He left the courthouse flanked by supporters, lit a cigar and drove away in the back of a black Mercedes.
The 41-year-old boxer will serve his day in jail Tuesday for DUI. He received three years of probation for the cocaine charge and also will have to pay a fine, submit to drug testing and serve 360 hours of community service.
He will be incarcerated in Tent City, Maricopa County's infamous jail near a dog pound and trash dump. Sheriff Joe Arpaio said Tyson will wear the standard-issue pink underwear and black-and-white striped uniform. He'll stay in an unoccupied area, apart from Tent City's 1,500 other inmates. Tyson visited juvenile inmates in Tent City in 1999, telling them to stay out of trouble.
"Apparently he didn't listen to his own advice," Arpaio said.
Prosecutors had argued that Tyson should be behind bars, given his violent criminal past. But Superior Court Judge Helene Abrams was impressed with how the boxer has tried to atone following his Dec. 29 arrest in which his car almost hit a sheriff's deputy's vehicle.
"You worked to address your addiction and self-destructive behavior," Abrams said before sentencing him.
Tyson had numerous supporters in court, including former wife Monica Turner and people who worked at a California drug treatment clinic where he was treated, lawyer said.
Prosecutor Shane Krauser recommended one year in prison, although the maximum was four years, three months. Krausner said Tyson was a multiple offender who previously had been convicted of a violent crime and that only now has he sought treatment for his drug addiction.
He noted Tyson was convicted of rape in Indiana in 1992 and pleaded no contest to misdemeanor assault charges in Maryland in 1999.
"Judge, by my calculations, this is his fourth or fifth chance," Krauser said.
County Attorney Andrew Thomas was disappointed by the sentence.
"His intentional criminal conduct seriously endangered the public," Thomas said in a statement.
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Tyson, who used to live in Paradise Valley, was spotted driving erratically last year after leaving Scottsdale's Pussycat Lounge. An officer said he saw Tyson wiping a white substance off the dashboard of his black BMW, and that his speech was slurred. Police found bags of cocaine in his pocket and in the car.
Tyson told officers later that he used cocaine "whenever I can get my hands on it," and that he preferred to smoke it in cigarettes with the tobacco pulled out, according to court documents. He also told police he used marijuana that day and was taking an antidepressant, the documents state.
In September, Tyson pleaded guilty to a single felony count of cocaine possession and a misdemeanor DUI count. Since his arrest, he checked himself into an inpatient treatment program in California for what his lawyer called "various addictions." Attorney David Chesnoff described the Dec. 29 arrest as a victimless crime that hurt only Tyson.
In court, Chesnoff said his client had taken 29 drug tests without a relapse since his arrest and that he's attended Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous meetings. He told Abrams that Tyson had become an example of how one overcomes problems with drugs, a violent past and poor upbringing.
"He's tried his hardest despite coming from almost impossible beginnings," Chesnoff said.
In 1986, a 20-year-old Tyson became the youngest heavyweight champion when he knocked out Trevor Berbick. He lost his title four years later, knocked out by James "Buster" Douglas. By 1997, Tyson's career hit a low when he bit Evander Holyfield's ear during a fight.
Tyson recently had been trying to revive his career with a series of boxing exhibitions.
[Associated Press; By CHRIS KAHN]
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This
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