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Ex-boxer Paul Spadafora pleads guilty in 2016 domestic dispute

Allegheny County Jail

Ex-boxer Paul Spadafora pleads guilty in 2016 domestic dispute

Former lightweight boxing champion Paul Spadafora was released on time served to be followed by probation after pleading guilty Thursday to resisting arrest and simple assault on officers after they responded to a domestic dispute at his house in 2016.

Pittsburgh police were called after Spadafora allegedly stabbed his brother and assaulted his mother around 6 p.m. Dec. 21, 2016, at their home in Westwood.

When officers arrived, according to the prosecution, Spadafora, 42, challenged them to fight, tried to push one officer down the stairs and spit on another.

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He was tased and taken into custody.

On Thursday during a hearing before Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey A. Manning, Spadafora's defense attorney said that his client was highly intoxicated at the time of the incident, and he was angry because his brother had taken Christmas gifts Spadafora bought for his son and pawned them for drug money.

"Paul went nuts on his brother," said defense attorney William Difenderfer.

Since, then, though, he said his client has remained sober, completing a six-month program inside the Allegheny County Jail, as well as a six-month, locked-down inpatient program.

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Spadafora, who is starting to show early signs of dementia, Mr. Difenderfer said, is now working at a gym in Punxsutawney training young men in boxing. He asked that his client's probation be transferred there.

"It's hard for me to be clean when I'm in Pittsburgh," Spadafora said.

He told the judge he started drinking alcohol at age 6 with his father.

"If I would never have a drink in my body, I would never be in the county jail or the penitentiary,” he said. "I wouldn't be in any trouble."

Spadafora, who won the International Boxing Federation lightweight title in August 1999, has been in and out of criminal trouble for years, including going to state prison after shooting the mother of his child in October 2003.

In 2012, he pleaded guilty to drunk driving.

Judge Manning, who is familiar with Spadafora's criminal record, said the man lost a promising career in boxing.

"The court looks at you like a real failure," he said. "A failure of yourself and a failure of us."

The judge told Spadafora if he relapses he will go to state prison.

"Don't let me see you back here again."

Although the assault charges involving Spadafora's brother and mother were withdrawn in February 2017, the charges involving the officers remained.

Paula Reed Ward: pward@post-gazette.com, 412-263-2620 or on Twitter: @PaulaReedWard.

First Published: March 22, 2018, 4:14 p.m.

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Paul Spadafora  (Allegheny County Jail)
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