A woman who has accused Arkansas Sports Hall of Famer Jermain Taylor of domestic violence could not bring herself to repeat the allegations in Pulaski County Circuit Court on Monday.
But Ashley Rena Elizabeth White affirmed under oath that she had made those claims to Maumelle police.
The 26-year-old woman accompanied Taylor to court for the former boxing champion's arraignment on charges of felony terroristic threatening and misdemeanor counts of domestic battering and interference with emergency communications.
The charges stem from a July middle-of-the-night disturbance at Taylor's Maumelle home in which he's accused of biting White's arm and face during an argument over Taylor's "jealousy issues."
Jermain Taylor through the years
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Police photographed a bite mark to White's left arm, cuts on her lip, a scrape near her right eye and a cut below her right shoulder, according to an arrest report. She declined immediate medical attention.
She told police that she had pepper-sprayed Taylor after he took her cellphone away and broke it when she tried to call for help and that he had chased her out of the house and down the street.
Officers saw no marks on Taylor but reported that the Olympian looked like he had been pepper-sprayed in the chest and that he smelled like he had been drinking. He told police the couple had been "arguing all night."
Because of the nature of the charges, prosecutors asked Circuit Judge Leon Johnson to order Taylor to stay away from White, but the judge declined after White testified Monday that she did not want such an order.
Questioned by chief deputy prosecutor John Johnson about whether Taylor had bitten and hit her, White fell silent. When Johnson then asked whether she had made the accusations to police in July, White paused noticeably before acknowledging that's what she reported.
Taylor, who turned 39 two weeks ago, did not speak during the proceeding. A public defender was appointed to represent him after he reported he is indigent.
He faces up to six years in prison at his trial, which is scheduled for January.
But if he's convicted, he could have up to 54 years added to any prison time for violating the terms of a suspended sentence he received in May 2016.
That sentence came after Taylor pleaded guilty to nine felony counts of second-degree battery, aggravated assault and terroristic threatening for a series of crimes over a nine-month span between August 2014 and May 2015 that included shooting his cousin in the leg, punching a fellow patient while in drug rehab and threatening a family with three children by shooting a pistol in the air at Little Rock's Martin Luther King Jr. parade.
Taylor won the bronze medal in the 2000 Olympics in Australia, turned pro the next year and rose to be the undisputed middleweight champion in 2005.
By the time he suffered his first professional defeat in 2007, he had lost his titles. A severe concussion with brain bleeding inflicted during a 2011 match in Germany kept him out of the ring for two years. He was just beginning what fans thought might be a comeback when he was first arrested in August 2014 for shooting his cousin in the leg.
Despite the arrest, Taylor regained his International Boxing Federation middleweight title in October 2014. But he was forced to surrender it within months when a fractured rib injury in training kept him from defending the title.
During the course of the criminal proceedings, Taylor was able to persuade the judge to let him live in Florida for training to resume his boxing career. He returned to the Sunshine State after pleading guilty last year. Monday, he signed an extradition waiver requested by prosecutors in the event he decides to return to Florida.
In a wrinkled charcoal sport coat and dark jeans, Taylor appeared noticeably thinner Monday than he did at his sentencing hearing last year. He looks lean and muscular in the photos and videos he has posted on Instagram in the past few months. In an April post, he indicates he was in Cuba. He and White are almost cheek to cheek in a photograph taken over the weekend.
White also joined Taylor for a brief appearance in divorce court that brought Taylor face-to-face with his ex-wife Erica, the mother of four of his seven children. She is asking that he be held in contempt because he hasn't paid child support in more than a year and owes her money from their July 2015 divorce. The couple were married for 12 years.
Jermain Taylor had no legal representation for the contempt proceeding, so Judge Chip Welch delayed the hearing until Dec. 14, telling Taylor he needs to show up either with a lawyer or prepared to represent himself.
Erica Taylor's contempt petition states that her ex-husband has not made a child support payment since May 2016 and has yet to pay her the $15,500 he promised when they divorced.
Also as grounds for contempt, Erica Taylor reported that the boxer stopped paying on another debt he promised to take on when they divorced, the $16,203 owed on a camping trailer.
Jermain Taylor's second wife, whom he married about three months after pleading guilty to his criminal charges, filed for separation in June.
Lutza Gayot reported that she moved out of their home in May due to "physical abuse" that forced her to leave without any money or a car. She has petitioned the court to force Taylor to support her financially. Taylor has not responded to her complaint.
Court filings show that in March, state child support enforcement authorities petitioned to have Taylor arrested for not paying child support for almost three years on his namesake 16-year-old son with another woman.
He had been ordered to pay $644 per month and was reported to owe $3,108. The effort was dropped the following month after Taylor paid $4,000, court filings show.
Metro on 08/29/2017