by David P. Greisman
Troubled middleweight titleholder Jermain Taylor will undergo mental and neuropsychological evaluations while awaiting trial in the multiple cases that have landed him in legal hot water, according to Arkansas Online.
Taylor is accused of shooting and injuring his cousin last year, and last week he was arrested following an incident at the Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade in Little Rock in which he is accused of pointing his gun at a woman and her kids and shooting at their father after a child dropped Taylor’s world title.
Taylor’s attorney “initially asked the judge to allow Taylor to be moved into a separate treatment center after his hospital evaluation, though [the judge] said Taylor must make another appearance in court before he decides to allow that,” the report said. “He indicated there would likely be other conditions, including electronic monitoring and drug testing, if he allowed the move.”
A court date is scheduled for Feb. 10.
A hearing in last year’s shooting has been scheduled for May 29, 2015, and a jury trial is scheduled to take place on June 23 and June 24, 2015, according to online court records. Taylor is facing one felony count of first-degree battery and one felony count of first-degree terroristic threatening.
He was also accused last month of throwing a brick that struck a woman, a case he claimed was in self-defense. Online court records don’t yet list any charges.
Taylor, who is 36 years old, won the middleweight championship in 2005 with a split decision win over Bernard Hopkins. He reigned until 2007, losing via technical knockout to Kelly Pavlik. Taylor dropped a decision to Pavlik in a rematch, won a decision over Jeff Lacy and then was stopped by Carl Froch in the final round of their fight in early 2009. He then entered the “Super Six” super middleweight tournament.
His first and only tournament fight came against Arthur Abraham, who scored a one-punch, 12th-round knockout. Taylor suffered a brain bleed and was out of the sport for about two years. He returned in late 2011 after undergoing a series of medical examinations. Taylor won four bouts in a row and ultimately met a hobbled Sam Soliman this past October, scoring several knockdowns and taking Soliman’s title by unanimous decision. That moved Taylor’s record to 33-4-1 with 20 KOs.
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