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Jay Mariotti Hit with 3 Felony Charges for Allegedly Assaulting Ex-Girlfriend. Again.
Former sports commentator and columnist Jay Mariotti pleaded not guilty to three counts of felony on Wednesday for allegedy stalking and assaulting an ex-girlfriend. It's the same woman who had Mariotti on the ropes in the first place, according to the L.A. County District Attorney's office. He had been on probation ever since pleading "no contest" to multiple misdemeanor charges filed by the same woman after a domestic violence incident that began at a Santa Monica restaurant last August.
The latest charges stem from an incident that occurred around midnight on April 15, when Mariotti, 51, allegedly pulled a chunk of the woman's hair out and grabbed her cell phone away from her while shouting at her, according to the DA. Not unlike last year's incident, in which Mariotti reportedly "ripped something out of her ear and shoved her around."
The widely disliked former sports columnist for the Chicago Sun Times and frequent talking head on ESPN's Around the Horn before his arrest last year, pleaded not guilty to one felony count each of stalking, corporal injury to a spouse or cohabitant, assault by means likely to produce great bodily injury, and two misdemeanor counts of disobeying a domestic court order on Wednesday.
"These allegations are complete fabrications, made by an accuser who, since October of last year, has doggedly tried to have Mr. Mariotti arrested and charged on numerous past occasions without success," said Mariotti's attorney, Shawn Holley. "We look forward to our day in court, where these outrageous falsehoods will be exposed as the lies that they are."
Mariotti is scheduled for a June 1 preliminary hearing. If convicted, he faces up to five years in state prison.
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