Taylor's transfer to center gets OK

Judge sets date for boxer’s trial

In this file photo Jermain Taylor, former middle weight boxing world champion, leaves the Pulaski County Jail in Little Rock after posting a $50,000 bond following his arrest for pulling a gun and opening fire on Thelton and Toya Smith and their three kids after a Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade in Little Rock.
In this file photo Jermain Taylor, former middle weight boxing world champion, leaves the Pulaski County Jail in Little Rock after posting a $50,000 bond following his arrest for pulling a gun and opening fire on Thelton and Toya Smith and their three kids after a Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade in Little Rock.

Pulaski County Circuit Judge Leon Johnson on Tuesday approved Jermain Taylor's transfer from a secured hospital to a locked-down substance-abuse program for treatment.

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The judge also set a June 23 trial date for the 36-year-old boxer.

Conditions for Taylor's treatment set by the judge at Tuesday's hearing include regular progress reports to the court and the requirement that the boxer submit to electronic monitoring.

The judge said he expects Taylor to be in Recovery Centers of Arkansas for at least a month, with limitations on who can visit him set by the psychiatrist who has been counseling him. The judge said he also expects the program to comply with the doctor's recommendations and that Taylor can't be released from treatment without court approval.

Violating the terms of his release, including withdrawing from the program before completing it, means Taylor will return to jail, the judge said.

Taylor's psychiatrist testified last month that Taylor has no one he can trust in his life and likely has brain damage that affects his ability to control himself. That lack of control is made worse by Taylor's ongoing use of marijuana and alcohol, the doctor said.

Accused of shooting his cousin and threatening another man at his home in August, Taylor is charged with first-degree battery and terroristic threatening. The judge set his trial for June, with his next court appearance for May 29 to address pretrial motions. He faces up to 26 years in prison.

He was arrested again in January after a Little Rock couple complained to police he'd threatened them and their three children by firing a gun just after the city's Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade in the 1700 block of Wright Avenue. Taylor owns a gym at 1724 Wright Ave.

Police had to engage Taylor in a brief pursuit to arrest him, according to testimony at Taylor's Feb. 10 court appearance. That hearing was the first police account of the events of Jan. 19 delivered in court.

The boxer, behind the wheel of a borrowed sport utility vehicle, ran a red light and drove into oncoming traffic lanes with two of his children in the SUV with him as police followed him, officer Joe Hill testified.

Hill told the judge that he had been working at the parade when he and several other officers heard shots. Driving in the direction of the gunfire, he heard over the police radio a broadcast alerting officers to be looking for a green Chevrolet Tahoe driven by Taylor and saw the SUV almost immediately after getting the alert, he testified.

"As I was pulling up, the green Tahoe was pulling out of the parking lot," Hill said, describing for the judge how he made an U-turn and turned on his lights and sirens.

The Tahoe kept driving, never reaching more than 30 mph, making it about two blocks before officer De Chance Ketzscher used his car to pull in front of the SUV and block it from moving forward, Hill said.

"He was either going off the road or directly behind [Ketzscher]," Hill said. "I didn't have the feeling he was going to stop if [Ketzscher] didn't pull in front of him."

Hill said he got Taylor out of the vehicle and into handcuffs at gunpoint. Hill said Taylor was compliant with his commands but had alcohol on his breath. He said Taylor directed police to a loaded black and chrome .38 pistol in his back pocket when officers asked if he was armed.

Taylor's fiancee, 22-year-old Skylar Harris of Sherwood, was in the front passenger seat, and two of Taylor's children were in the back, the officer testified.

He said Taylor only became "agitated" when police began discussing with him what to do with the children, whom Hill did not identify beyond saying they were elementary-school-aged. Taylor, a father of six, wanted to see the children before they were placed in the custody of an uncle, Hill said. He said Taylor was upset but his anger did not seem to have a focus, describing the boxer as "mad in general."

Officer Kevin Duncan was the first policeman to reach the couple who reported Taylor had threatened them. Also assigned to parade duty, Duncan told the judge he had just finished his assignment when he heard shots nearby. Arriving at 1720 Wright Ave., Duncan said he found Thelton and Toya Smith and their children.

"He [Thelton Smith] told me Jermain Taylor had shot at him and was getting away," Duncan testified. "He said ... the gun was right by his head."

Duncan said he never saw Taylor but broadcast an alert over police radio for officers to be looking for the champ, who Smith said was driving a green Tahoe. Police reports show the SUV is owned by Corey Lavar Rogan, 33, of El Dorado.

Police charged Taylor with aggravated assault and endangering the welfare of a minor, but formal charges have not been filed.

Metro on 03/04/2015

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