Busted MMA fighters and fights

[Marco]

Very sad to read that there are so many criminal martial artists.

[GeneChing]

Strapped to a cross? Maybe this should have been posted in our Martial-Arts-&-Religion thread.

Defendant in Springfield 'crucifixion' case is mixed martial artist with lengthy arrest record
By Jack Flynn | jflynn@repub.com
on January 17, 2015 at 8:45 AM

SPRINGFIELD - A mixed martial artist charged with strapping two men to a makeshift cross and beating them has an image of Christ tattooed on one shoulder and The Grim Reaper on the other, court records show.


Vito C. Resto

Vito C. Resto, 36, of Springfield, is being held at the Hampden County House of Correction under a judge's ruling that he is too dangerous to be released on bail.

After hearing testimony from police and witnesses, Judge William Hadley wrote that Resto "hung individuals on a cross and beat them as punishment for misdeeds in drug trade."

During his arraignment, the defendant pleaded not guilty to kidnapping, assault and battery, and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.

As bizarre as the new charges sound, this is not Resto's first high-profile case. In 2004, he was charged and later acquitted in a rush hour shoot out at an intersection just off Interstate 91.

Still, the alleged crucifixions have brought a different kind of attention to Resto, an accomplished mixed martial artist with an extensive criminal record.

At 6 feet, 2 inches and 250 pounds, Resto was ranked among New England's top fighters in the amateur heavyweight division in 2014. Fighting under the name Vito Corleone Resto, he won his only two fights last year, according to the Massachusetts Mixed Martial Arts website.

The Hartford native has a mixed record in the criminal justice system, picking up convictions on drug and firearms charges but avoiding long, minimum-mandatory prison sentences for repeat offenders.

In his most recent case, Resto was charged with assaulting a woman at a downtown club in 2013. But the case was dropped after the victim - an ex-girlfriend, mother of his two children and co-defendant in a 2009 drug case - decided not to testify against him.

In the arrest report, Resto was described as a salesman at Cabo's Fashion and Footwear on Liberty Street; among his five tattoos are images of Christ on his right shoulder and The Grim Reaper on his left, the report said.

Following his arrest, Resto was released on $500 bail. A trial was scheduled for Feb. 24, 2014, but cancelled after the alleged victim did not appear. His bail
was refunded the next day, records show.

The latest charges came after a witness called state police on Dec. 3 to report a man had been strapped to a wooden cross and was being beaten by several men behind 53 Orchard St. in the city's Riverview section, the records show.

The beating lasted about eight minutes and left the victim injured and bleeding, the witness said.

Springfield police recovered the cross, made with a 4 by 4 board crossed with 2 x 4, and state police located the alleged victim. The man, identified as Victim 1 in court documents, said Resto had strapped him to the cross.

Investigators identified a second victim several days later. No other suspects have been charged, but the investigation is continuing, police said.

Before the alleged crucifixions, Resto's most publicized arrest involved a rush hour shootout on East Columbus Avenue in 2004.

Witnesses identified Resto, then 26, as the driver of one of two vehicles involved in a gun battle at a busy intersection close to Interstate 91. At trial, the judge ruled the prosecution had not proven its case against Resto, and dismissed the charges before sending the case to the jury.

Two other defendants were convicted and given state prison sentences.

While awaiting trial for the shootout, Resto was charged in a federal firearms case that carried a potential 15-year mandatory sentence.

In April, 2005, he pleaded innocent to an eight-count indictment in U.S. District Court for being a felon in possession of a handgun while under indictment for other felony charges.

A year later, he pleaded guilty to three charges, but avoided the 15-year term given to career offenders. Instead, Judge Michael A. Ponsor ordered him to serve one year in prison and one year of home detention, followed by three years of supervised release.

From the start, the case was marked by wrangling over terms of Resto's bail and supervised release, which included travel restrictions, electronic monitoring and a curfew; the judge, for example, allowed Resto to attend his daughter's birthday party, but not to travel to Puerto Rico for his grandfather's funeral, or to play in a touch football league.

More than a dozen similar requests were submitted by his lawyer, Mark G. Mastroianni, now the presiding judge in U.S. District Court in Springfield.

After refusing to let Resto celebrate July 4 with his family, Ponsor said it would amount to "special treatment (that) would be unfair to other persons under supervision and would set an unmanageable precedent."

Responding to Mastroianni's contention that his client was being treated unfairly, a probation official wrote that Resto had received lenient treatment and yet continued to violate the terms of his release.

"Rehabilitation cannot be measured by non-compliance," he wrote.

The wrangling continued into 2012, nearly six years after Resto's guilty plea; by then, Ponsor had assumed semi-retired status and left the case; Mastroianni had been elected Hampden District Attorney, and Resto had been indicted and taken into state custody for participating in what state and federal officials described as a 100-kilo-per-year cocaine and marijuana ring.

The federal firearms case finally wrapped up in January, 2012 with Resto admitting to three probation violations.

For punishment, Judge Rya Zobel gave him a one-day sentence.

[GeneChing]

More on Berdon here & here.

MMA fighter pleads no contest to assaulting fighter wife


Mixed martial arts fighter Arnold Berdon, right, talks to his attorney Myles Breiner outside a courtroom in Honolulu on Thursday, March 14, 2019. Berdon pleaded no contest to assaulting his wife and fellow fighter, Rachael Ostrovich Berdon, who filed for a temporary restraining order in November 2018, alleging he punched her in the face, fracturing her eye socket. (AP Photo/Jennifer Sinco Kelleher) Photo Credit: AP

By The Associated Press
By JENNIFER SINCO KELLEHER (Associated Press)
Updated March 14, 2019 8:22 PM

HONOLULU - A Hawaii mixed martial arts fighter pleaded no contest Thursday to assaulting his wife, a fellow fighter who said he left her with a fractured eye socket.

Arnold Berdon is expected to be sentenced to probation.

His wife, Rachael Ostovich Berdon, filed for a temporary restraining order in November, alleging her husband punched her in the head, face and ribs. He punched her after a night out with family and she fell to the ground, gasped for air and escaped through a balcony, according to her petition for an order of protection. She said she coughed up blood and threw up several times.


Mixed martial arts fighter Arnold Berdon, right, and his attorney Myles Breiner stand outside a courtroom in Honolulu on Thursday, March 14, 2019. Berdon pleaded no contest to assaulting his wife and fellow fighter, Rachael Ostrovich Berdon, who filed for a temporary restraining order in November 2018, alleging he punched her in the face, fracturing her eye socket. (AP Photo/Jennifer Sinco Kelleher) Photo Credit: AP

Police arrested Berdon on a charge of second-degree attempted murder. Prosecutors later charged him with second-degree assault.

Judge Trisha Morikawa told Berdon, 28, he will likely avoid jail time if he does well in a domestic violence intervention program. "I'm going to do well," he told the judge.

The maximum sentence is five years in prison. Sentencing is scheduled for May 16.

Berdon said after the hearing that he decided to plead no contest to spare his family from a legal battle. He said he and his wife are divorcing. They have a daughter.

When asked about his future as an MMA fighter he said, "I'll do whatever God wants me to do."

Ostovich Berdon initially canceled a fight against Paige VanZant but later decided to go through with it, saying she was healing.

"I'm satisfied that Arnold is accepting responsibility for his actions and getting the needed help so that he can be the best father to our daughter," Ostovich Berdon said in a statement through her attorney, Lanson Kupau.

__

This version of the story corrects the spelling of Rachael Ostovich Berdon.

[GeneChing]

More on Giudice here. Does he deserve his own thread? Reality stars can be such attention hogs that way. I know because I am one.

There are a bunch of embedded instagram vids in this that I'm not going to cut&paste here.

Joe Giudice Practices Martial Arts Shirtless After ICE Release: 'Gotta Fight Your Way Back'
"I'm going to come back and we're going to fight," Real Housewives of New Jersey star Joe Giudice said
By Dave Quinn October 17, 2019 08:33 AM

Joe Giudice is ready for battle.

As the Real Housewives of New Jersey star, 49, awaits the decision regarding his latest deportation appeal in Italy, he’s staying in shape — working hard to maintain his dramatic weight-loss in a series of martial arts training videos shared on Wednesday.

Joe’s eldest daughter Gia Giudice, 18, shared the clips in a gallery on her Instagram account.

“We come back stronger than before ❤️,” she captioned the footage — which showed Joe sparring with his brother Pete, who is staying with him in Italy. “The fights just starting 💪🏼.”

“Zio Pete your a great coach,” she added, with a smile.

On her Instagram Story, she shared another clip, this time featuring Joe himself speaking out for the first time since his release from an ICE facility last Friday.

“I’m going to come back and we’re going to fight,” he said. “Gotta fight your way back. Never give up.”


Joe Giudice GIA GIUDICE INSTAGRAM

Joe has been away from the home he shares with wife Teresa Giudice and their four daughters — Gia, Gabriella, 15, Milania, 14, and Audriana, 10 — since he began a 41-month prison sentence for mail, wire and bankruptcy fraud in March 2016.

Though Joe has lived in the United States since he was a child, he never obtained American citizenship, and immigrants can be deported if they are convicted of “a crime of moral turpitude” or an “aggravated felony,” according to U.S. law.

That ruling came Joe’s way last October. He’s appealed twice so far, and has been denied both times. A final ruling is expected in November.

After his release from prison in March, Joe asked to be held in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the Clinton County Correctional Center in Pennsylvania while he fought the deportation decision.

A petition to be released back to his home wasn’t granted but a request to go to Italy was. Last Friday, he was released from ICE custody and flew to Rome, where he has been spending time with family.


Joe and Gia Giudice GIA GIUDICE/INSTAGRAM


Joe Giudice and his daughters MILANIA GUIDICE/INSTAGRAM

While Teresa has publicly stood by her husband thus far, she has also been realistic about the fate of their marriage should he be deported, admitting on the RHONJ season 9 reunion that she’s “not doing a long-distance relationship.”

And on Tuesday, Bravo released the first few minutes of the RHONJ season 10 premiere to their Bravo Insiders fan club, and in it, Teresa is at a crossroads in her relationship.

Asked by costar Jennifer Aydin if she’s still in love with Joe, Teresa said frankly, “I don’t know.”

“I haven’t been happy in so long,” she then told sister-in-law Melissa Gorga. “And I just want to be happy again.”

“I feel like I’m living the worst nightmare ever,” she admitted, later telling Friend of the Housewives Danielle Staub that she feels like “drinking a bottle of tequila every night.”


Teresa Giudice and Joe Giudice PAUL ZIMMERMAN/GETTY

Meanwhile, a source told PEOPLE earlier this week that Joe’s new physique is due to the lifestyle change he underwent while behind bars.

“He lost the weight from changing his diet, working out and no drinking,” the source said.

Before going to prison in March 2016, Joe told PEOPLE he was looking forward to quitting drinking while serving his time after he found himself developing bad habits while Teresa was completing her own prison sentence for the same crimes.

“I am not going to be able to drink for a while, which is good because I don’t even know when it’s been since I haven’t had a drink,” he told PEOPLE in February 2016. “It’s been a long time.”

“Definitely the whole year I drank every day a couple of bottles at night just to go to bed,” he said.

And in September 2016, Teresa told PEOPLE that Joe kept busy in prison by working out, revealing that he lost about 35 lbs. in the first six months of his 41-month sentence.

“He’s running, he’s doing 1,000 sit-ups a day,” she told PEOPLE. “So he lifts weights and that’s what he’s doing. Just running, working out and then a lot of push-ups and sit-ups. He’s doing over 1,000 sit-ups.”

Joe used his workouts as an escape during his time behind bars, his wife said.

“I said just get your mind and body in check. It’ll be good for you,” Teresa explained. “He’s been through a lot with losing his dad and then me gone, it’s a lot.”


By Dave Quinn

THREADS
Busted MMA fighters and fights
Celebrities studying martial arts?

[GeneChing]

...on fire! ouch.

More on Gandulla

‘Throat slit and his ***** lit on fire.’ Trial starts in case tied to MMA fighters, market mogul
BY DAVID OVALLE
OCTOBER 28, 2019 01:57 PM, UPDATED OCTOBER 28, 2019 05:47 PM
Play Video
Duration 1:43
Comienza juicio de conspiración de asesinato para ex combatiente de MMA en Miami involucrado con dueño de supermercado Presidente

Declaraciones de apertura en el juicio de ex combatientes de MMA acusados de asesinato por tortura de Camilo Salazar, supuestamente a instancias del propietario de Supermercados Presidente. BY VIDEO COMPARTIDO / EDITADO POR CHARLES TRAINOR JR.

More than eight years after Camilo Salazar’s body was discovered at a brush fire near the Everglades, jurors heard a sordid backstory of his demise — a secret affair, a wealthy and jealous husband, and a murder plot hashed out at a Miami mixed-martial arts gym.

“Hell hath no fury like a man scorned,” Miami-Dade prosecutor Justin Funck told jurors. “Kidnapped, held hostage, tortured, beaten about the head, throat slit and his ***** lit on fire.”

The mastermind, prosecutors told jurors Monday, was Manuel Marin, the rich owner of a string of Presidente Supermarkets, whose wife was cheating on him with Salazar. And while Marin was not yet facing a jury, two of his accused cohorts started their trials on Monday in a sensational only-in-Miami murder case.

Sitting at the defendant’s box was Alexis Vila Perdomo, 48, a former mixed-martial arts fighter and Cuban wrestling champ who is accused of setting up the plot; and Roberto Isaac, 63, a gym buddy accused of taking part in the killing.

Prosecutors are relying on detailed cellphone records, placing Vila in the thick of the plot, and Marin and Isaac at the murder scene. Also, there’s the testimony of star witness Ariel “The Panther” Gandulla, an ex-MMA fighter who is doing prison time for helping in the kidnapping.

Defense lawyers told jurors their clients were innocent.

Vila was in Las Vegas training for a fight, and phone records don’t prove he knew what was going to happen to the victim, defense lawyer Ted Mastos said.

“You will not find a scintilla of evidence that my client ever agreed to a kidnapping or a murder,” Mastos said.

Isaac’s lawyer said Gandulla was “raw-dog lying” to save his own skin — his fingerprint was found on the victim’s car.

“The evidence is not going to show Roberto killed Camilo,” defense lawyer Michael Walsh said.

Marin, who helped establish Miami’s Presidente Supermarkets, ran several stores before he disappeared to Europe shortly after the killing. He remained a fugitive until he was captured in Madrid last year.

Marin remains jailed in Miami, also charged with murder, and won’t go on trial until next year.


Camilo Salazar - FAMILY PHOTO

Salazar’s murder was a mystery when his charred corpse was found in June 2011. A businessman, Salazar lived in Coconut Grove with his wife and newborn baby.

But Salazar had a secret — he was having an affair with an old flame, Jenny Marin, the wife of the supermarket owner. Prosecutors said Manuel Marin confronted the two lovers at a cafe in South Miami-Dade.

“This case is about a man who discovered his wife was cheating on him, hunted his wife’s lover and killed him in the most vicious way possible,” said prosecutor Funck, who is trying the case with Gail Levine.

Salazar was last seen alive on June 1, 2011, after he dropped off his 3-week-old child at the office of his wife just before 10 a.m. He was supposed to return 45 minutes later but he vanished and stopped answering his phone. That night, friends found his Chevrolet Trailblazer where he had parked it, less than a block away from his wife’s office.

Prosecutors said Isaac had been watching Salazar, and got Gandulla to help him kidnap Salazar from the street. Isaac posed as a cop and used flex cuffs to bind their hostage.

Driving in a rented truck, the two transported Salazar to Isaac’s home in Wynwood, where he was kept for hours while they waited for Marin to return from a boat trip to Bimini, prosecutors said. Isaac and Vila kept calling Marin, whose phone was not getting reception.

“The cellphone evidence tells the whole story,” Funck said. “Frantic call after frantic call. Waiting impatiently. They waited for Marin to return.”

Finally, after Marin returned, Gandulla and Isaac drove the hostage to Broward County, where they turned him over to Marin — whose SUV was lined with a plastic tarp.

“Camilo knows his life is over. He begins to scream and beg for his life,” Funck said.

Gandulla, spooked and feeling that he’d been duped into helping, ditched the men and drove off — something supported by phone records. He was later told to keep quiet, and fled to Canada, where he tried to kill himself as the details of the murder surfaced after prosecutors charged the men in 2018.

Gandulla agreed to return to Miami, and accepted a 36-month prison sentence in exchange for his testimony.

On Monday prosecutors began delving into the relationships between Marin and the others.

Vila hails from Cuba, where he was a champion wrestler — even capturing a bronze medal at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996.

Sponsored by Marin, he later came to Miami, where he was given a job stocking shelves at a Presidente store. Vila also trained Marin’s son, and ran a wrestling studio.

“He gave my client a job in one of his grocery stores, worked the hell out of him and paid him little,” said Mastos, Vila’s lawyer.

Vila hit the news in 2004 when — despondent over a break-up — he plowed his car into a terminal at Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport, sparking fears of terrorism.


MMA fighters Alexis Vila, Jorge Mas Vidal, and Ariel Gandulla at the Young Tigers Gym in Miami in 2008. Vila and Gandulla are now accused of taking part in a plot to murder. Gaston de Cardenas EL NUEVO HERALD

Vila spent three years in federal prison for the airport wreck. After walking free, he dubbed himself The Exorcist and began racking up victories in the local mixed-martial arts scene at age 37. Prosecutors even showed jurors a photo of Vila and Gandulla with superstar MMA champ Jorge Mas Vidal, who has nothing to do with the case but trained with them at the Young Tiger Gym over a decade ago.

“He was the best,” testified Antonio Goenega, a gym associate who knew all of the men through the fight scene.

The trial is expected to last over a week before Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Miguel de la O.


Attorney Ted Mastos and his client Alexis Vila Perdomo before the opening statements in the trial of ex-MMA fighters accused of the torture murder of Camilo Salazar, allegedly at the behest of the owner of a string of Presidente Supermarkets in Miami, Florida. Opening statements were Oct. 28, 2019. CHARLES TRAINOR JR. CTRAINOR@MIAMIHERALD.COM

[tomluise]

This is really a big shock for me

[GeneChing]

Florida man facing DUI arrest offers deputies free MMA classes if they let him go, report says
Published 20 hours ago Brevard CountyFOX 35 Orlando



BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. - A Florida man, who claims to be a professional mixed martial arts fighter, was arrested for DUI despite offering deputies free classes for a month if they him go.

The Brevard County Sheriff's Office said that deputies observed Calen Holcomb, 34, driving a white pick-up truck on North Atlantic Avenue on Monday. They said that he was attempting to back into a parking spot and almost backed into a building. Upon making contact with him, they observed him stumbling and he smelled of alcohol. He also had red, bloodshot, and glossy eyes, they said.

Holcomb reportedly refused to complete a field sobriety exercise and test of his breath. He was placed under arrest for driving under the influence.

However, during the encounter, deputies said that Holcomb made several statements that he is a trained professional mixed martial arts fighter. He said that if the deputies let him go, he would let them attend a month of his classes for free. He reportedly offered this multiple times while being arrested and transported to jail. They said he also made several offers to cause physical harm to other suspects of law enforcement cases for deputies as payment.

During his trip to jail, deputies said that Holcomb had mood swings and was combative.

According to the arrest report, he faces charges for Driving Under the Influence (DUI) and Bribery Of or By Public Servant.

This story was written in Orlando, Florida.

Funny play. Drunks are funny sometimes.

[GeneChing]

Got him.

Wanted MMA fighter arrested



KOB Web Staff
Created: January 16, 2020 04:13 PM

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.- A wanted MMA fighter was arrested Thursday.

Tyler East was wanted for running from the Bosque Farms Police Department.

According to a post on the Bosque Farms Police Department's Facebook page, East was located after the police received a tip.

East has a lengthy criminal history which includes drugs and traffic infractions.

[GeneChing]

More on this here.

Lawsuit accuses Chicago police officer of using dangerous ‘mixed martial arts’ tactics on man who allegedly spit in cop’s face
By ROSEMARY SOBOL
CHICAGO TRIBUNE |
FEB 07, 2020 | 6:15 AM


Bernard Kersh holds hands with his mother, Keshia Johnson, while walking with the Rev. Jesse Jackson after Kersh bonded out of Cook County Jail in Chicago on Dec. 6, 2019. Kersh was charged with aggravated battery to a peace officer after allegedly spitting at a police officer, apparently prompting the officer to body-slam Kersh to the ground. (Chris Sweda / Chicago Tribune)

A man who was body-slammed against a curb by a Chicago police officer after allegedly spitting in the cop's face is suing the officer and the city, contending he was the victim of a "mixed martial arts takedown" that has left him "in danger of going blind in his left eye."

Bernard Kersh, 29, claims the officer is a trained mixed martial arts fighter known as “Bacon and Eggs,” and argues that his actions were intended to inflict “punishment or retaliation” rather than de-escalate the situation.

The Chicago Police Department has removed the officer and his partner from active duty while it investigates the incident last Thanksgiving in Chatham on the South Side.

The officers, dressed in plainclothes and in an unmarked squad car, were on routine patrol about 4 p.m. Nov. 28 when they saw Kersh drinking vodka at a bus shelter at 79th Street and Cottage Grove Avenue, prosecutors have said.

Car experts reveal which cars teeter on the edge of glory, many just one change away from making the leap from good to great. Click to see which models made the list.

One of the officers had taken away the vodka and was preparing to write Kersh a ticket for drinking on the public way when Kersh spit in the officer’s face, according to police and prosecutors.

According to the suit, the officer “wrapped his arms around Mr. Kersh and body-slammed Mr. Kersh, smashing his head into a concrete curb and knocking him unconscious.’’ The officer then “utilized a second MMA maneuver on Mr. Kersh — a forearm strike to his head,’’ the lawsuit alleges.

The suit claims the officers then stood over Kersh without providing first aid before “dragging his limp body’’ to their car.

Kersh refused medical treatment from an ambulance that arrived at the scene. He was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center, where he had to be sedated in order to be treated, prosecutors said.

Kersh was charged with aggravated battery to a police officer and spent five nights in Cook County Jail. “There was a substantial amount of spit, in liquid form, that landed in the eye of (the officer),” Assistant State’s Attorney James Murphy said during Kersh’s bond hearing.

A bystander took video of a Chicago police officer as he hurled a 29-year-old man to the ground for allegedly spitting on him during an arrest Nov. 28, 2019.

Murphy said surveillance video from a store on Cottage Grove shows Kersh licking the police officer’s face and spitting at him before the “emergency takedown.”

Kersh had been convicted in 2018 of spitting on a police officer and in 2011 of punching an officer.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot called video of the incident — widely circulated online — “very disturbing.” It renewed tensions over the department’s treatment of minorities.

The lawsuit cites a January 2017 finding by the U.S. Department of Justice, which found Chicago police had a pervasive “pattern and practice’’ of civil rights abuses. “This incident is yet another example of the continuing injustice and maltreatment of disenfranchised minority citizens by CPD officers,’’ the suit states.

The suit also refers to the city’s failure to comply with a federal consent decree aimed at reforming the department.

rsobol@chicagotribune.com

[GeneChing]

...or at least the opening of a 'walks into a bar' joke.

PHOENIX JONES, SEATTLE 'SUPERHERO' VIGILANTE AND MMA FIGHTER, ARRESTED FOR SELLING MDMA AND COCAINE
BY AILA SLISCO ON 1/29/20 AT 12:25 AM EST

A Seattle man who patrolled the city's streets in a costume and described himself as a "superhero" has found himself on the wrong side of the law after police arrested and charged him for allegedly selling drugs.

Ben Fodor, 31, was the leader of a group of costumed characters known as "The Rain City Superheroes" under the pseudonym "Phoenix Jones" until the group was dissolved in 2014. He was charged Monday on two counts related to dealing narcotics, according to The Seattle Times.

Police said Fodor was caught selling MDMA, also known ecstasy, to an undercover officer in November. His girlfriend Andrea Berendsen, 26, is also alleged to have been involved in a scheme to sell cocaine to undercover agents in January.

Court documents reportedly indicate that a Seattle narcotics officer initiated a series of text messages with Fodor in November 2019 after having earlier been tipped off to Fodor's alleged drug dealings. The officer arranged to buy $500 worth of MDMA, which Fodor allegedly agreed to on the condition that $300 would be sent in advance to his Venmo payment account. He is said to have then met an agent at a Starbucks coffee shop, where he delivered a brown paper bag containing around seven grams of the drug in exchange for the $200 balance.

A second attempt at a meeting to purchase another $500 of MDMA was made nearly a week later, but Fodor did not show up. The agent created a new persona and arranged a different drug deal on January 6. Fodor was arrested three days later when the exchange was allegedly made, with police confiscating four grams of cocaine during that transaction.

As "Phoenix Jones," Fodor urged drug dealers to refrain from their activities in Seattle and instead "sell somewhere else," according to a November 2010 article in the magazine Seattle Met.

The former self-described superhero also competed in mixed martial arts and reportedly relied on some of those skills in his costumed persona. Public reactions to his supposed crime-fighting activities were mixed. In recent years, his activities as "Phoenix Jones" have trailed off.

Fodor announced that he was retiring as a self-proclaimed superhero in 2019, claiming to be tired of attempting to solve the problems of Seattle, although he said he might put on his armored costume again if there is "a riot in the city."

"I'm not saying I'm never going to fight another crime," said Fodor in a March 2019 interview with NW NERD Podcast. "I'm just saying I don't owe you anything anymore. I don't feel like I owe people anything anymore. I used to feel like because I have this power it was my duty to use it, but it's not."

"If you're not using your ability to help people, I'm not using my ability to help people unless I want to," he added. "If I see a crime in front of me, I'm going to take care of it. But I don't own anybody anything anymore. I have a very special skill set and you no longer get to use it if you're not gonna play your part."

Law enforcement have always been skeptical of Fodor's superhero status. He was arrested in 2011 after allegedly dousing a group of people with pepper spray in an attempt to "break up" a street brawl that police later said did not happen. While charges against Fodor were eventually dropped, Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes described him as "no hero, just a deeply misguided individual" after the incident.

Newsweek reached out to the Seattle Police Department for comment but did not receive a response in time for publication.

Fodor and Berendsen are scheduled to make an appearance in court on February 3.

Correction 1/29, 10:31 p.m.: This article has been updated to correct the title of the referenced podcast from "NW Nerds Podcast" to "NW NERD Podcast."


Self-proclaimed Seattle "superhero" Phoenix Jones, pictured with actor Rainn Wilson and director James Gunn at the 2011 premiere of "Super" in Hollywood, California on March 21, 2011.
KEVIN WINTER/GETTY

THREADS
Busted MMA fighters
Real Life 'Superheroes'

[GeneChing]

You must follow the twitter link to see the embedded vid.

Chairs & bottles fly as Moscow MMA event turns into mass brawl (VIDEO)
31 Jan, 2020 16:16


Chairs & bottles fly as Moscow MMA event turns into mass brawl (VIDEO)
© Twitter

The violence at an MMA event in Moscow spilled out of the octagon and into the crowd as a mass brawl broke out involving fighters and fans.
The incident took place at local event ‘Coliseum’ where the competition took an unexpected turn with one fighter being seriously injured, according to reports.

It remains unknown what caused the wild scenes at the Moscow shopping center which hosted the event, but according to Vityaz-Noginsk coach Pavel Murtazin it was a group of enraged spectators who ignited the brawl.

“The fighters could not reach the octagon. Spectators were arguing with the judges and shoving the athletes,” he said.

Дикая Москва
@WildWildMoscow
Бойцы ММА и болельщики устроили массовую драку на турнире в центре на Открытом шоссе

Embedded video
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3:09 AM - Jan 31, 2020
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Footage shared on social media shows dozens of people brawling in a huge fist fight with chairs and bottles sent flying.

The organizers tried to quell the brawl, although their attempts to regain control over the rebellious crowd fell short, prompting them to halt the event.

According to local reports one fighter suffered a cut to his head during the scuffle, while another broke his wrist.

FWIW, I've been at MMA events where fights have broken out. It wasn't like this but it was still a fight outside the cage.

[GeneChing]

Remember Sindelar?

Oct. 19, 2010
Mixed martial arts fighter pleads not guilty in friend's death
By FRANCIS MCCABE
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

A mixed martial arts fighter charged in connection with his best friend's death pleaded not guilty Tuesday to one count of involuntary manslaughter.

Authorities said Jason Sindelar, 25, beat DeMario Reynolds Sr., 26, in June after he tried to stop a fight between Sindelar and his girlfriend in a Luxor hotel room. Reynolds died following the altercation.

The Clark County coroner's office determined Reynolds died as a result of an overdose of cocaine, Ecstasy, and alcohol.

The physical altercation was a contributing factor and the death was ruled a homicide, the coroner's office stated.

Sindelar originally was charged with second-degree murder, but a Las Vegas justice of the peace dismissed the charge after a preliminary hearing earlier this month.

If convicted of involuntary manslaughter, Sindelar could face probation or up to four years in prison.

Sindelar remained free on $50,000 bond. A trial was scheduled for April.

[GeneChing]

Martial-arts event yields one arrest
By John Collins, jcollins@lowellsun.com
Updated: 11/11/2010 11:55:13 AM EST

TYNGSBORO -- At least two fight fans among more than 1,000 who attended a mixed martial-arts "Tournament of Champions" event at the Tyngsboro Sports Center last Saturday night got a bit too caught up in the action, police and the center's owner said.

"There was one (spectator) who people there said was being a real loudmouth all night, and finally he got in the wrong person's face, apparently, and got sucker-punched," said Darryl Wickens, the Sports Center's owner.

The punch caused a minor injury to one combatant, and caused two groups of fans who were supporting rival fighters to jostle each other on the edges of the skirmish, Tyngsboro Deputy Police Chief Rich Burrows reported.

"Groups of fans were escorted out of the building (by police), and at one point somebody left the parking lot at a high rate of speed while there were still a lot of folks in the area," Burrows said. "So we stopped that driver and charged him with driving to endanger."

The driver who was arrested is an Auburn resident, Burrows said.

Two Tyngsboro officers on a paid detail at the MMA event quieted the melee quickly, reported Wickens.

"The police officers couldn't possibly have quelled the disturbance any faster than they did," said Wickens.

Wickens also employs private security personnel to work at MMA events, but they didn't need to get involved, he said,

"Like at any sporting event, or concert, where you have more than 1,000 folks coming together, there always seems to be someone like that with a big mouth causing a problem," Wickens added.

The 45,000-square-foot facility at 18 Progress Drive first opened in September 2005 to serve the indoor sporting needs of the area, including soccer, baseball, basketball, flag football and golf lessons. The Sports Center has hosted three "highly successful" paid-admission MMA events since receiving Town Meeting approval for a date-specific liquor license in September, Wickens said.

Consumption of alcohol was not what triggered Saturday night's sucker-punch outside of the pro-fighters' octagon, according to Burrows.

"It was a case of opposing groups of fans passionately rooting for their fighters," he said.

The first two MMA events hosted by the Sports Center were incident-free, Burrows said.

Wickens said the next mixed martial arts fight card at the Sports Center has been tentatively scheduled for January. A general admission ticket is $32.

Loud mouths could get sucker punched at any sporting event. It's no big.

[Syn7]

The Clark County coroner's office determined Reynolds died as a result of an overdose of cocaine, Ecstasy, and alcohol.

The physical altercation was a contributing factor and the death was ruled a homicide, the coroner's office stated.

that just doesnt seem fair to me... i mean, it should be negligence causing death or manslaughter, sure... but a homicide?

but to play devils advocate, if you flick an old man in the forehead and he's so feeble it kills him, i guess thats homicide considering you caused his already frail condition to get fatally worse...

thats a tough one... i imagine he'll plea it down and just do like a year or two, if that...

one thing we all know tho, is the accused is a scumbag peice of sh!t...

[GeneChing]

...just a lost opportunity for a decent job...

Police force dumps UFC fighter “Pimp Daddy”
Published On Wed Dec 15 2010


A photo of MMA fighter Sean Pierson, when he was known as Sean "Pimp Daddy" Pierson. Taken from www.seanpierson.com.

Technically Sean Pierson stopped being “Pimp Daddy” a couple of years ago. But it’s a title that’s hard to shake.

Remnants of the 34-year-old mixed martial arts fighter’s former persona still linger online, in fan blogs and websites dedicated to the sport. It was given to Pierson by a Montreal promoter in 1999, when he was a young fighter trying to make a name for himself.

On Saturday, Pierson realized a dream by winning a match at UFC 124 in Montreal, after he was called in to replace an injured fighter.

On Monday, his other dream collapsed.

Toronto Police informed him that his conditional offer of employment was revoked pending further investigation because, in part, he had failed to deal with concerns about his “Pimp Daddy” persona as a fighter.

Pierson received the conditional offer in October. He was supposed to become a cadet-in-training on Tuesday.

Police spokesman Mark Pugash said the decision had nothing do to with the fact that Pierson had been in a UFC fight.

“In this case, it wasn’t what he was doing. It’s that you have a name that I think most people would agree is not appropriate for a police officer.”

According to urbandictionary.com a “pimp daddy” is: “The head and master pimp, but nowadays known as a guy who gets a lot of girls.”

“I’ve been with my wife for nine years,” said Pierson, who used to enter fights to 50 Cent’s steel-drum beating ditty “P.I.M.P”.

“I’m the furthest thing from it.”

When Pierson first began his application to become a police officer, he says he informed them he was a professional mixed martial arts fighter and had fought under the “Pimp Daddy” nickname.

“I tried to distance myself from that name the best that I could,” Pierson said.

But unfortunately, not far enough.

“We raised ‘Pimp Daddy’ with him more than a year ago,” Pugash said. “Those concerns have not been addressed satisfactorily.”

In a photo still posted on his website, Pierson is wearing a white track suit, white fedora, sunglasses and a cane. (The website is under construction.)

“That picture is seven or eight years old,” he said. “That’s all over the Internet. To me it’s the way I used to dress for my fights. . . . I didn’t even think about it.”

Pierson said the term “Pimp Daddy” was used as frequently as others, like “player” or “hustler”—“Not that they’re any better.”

“I was a 23-year-old kid just out to have a good time,” he said. “I didn’t mean any disrespect to anybody by doing that.”

Along with the obvious nickname conundrum — which he was no longer using when he applied to the force — Toronto Police also raised concerns about the time commitment required to be a professional fighter.

“It’s the concern that it requires a level of commitment that takes away from his ability to be a proper police officer,” said Pugash, noting Pierson would face similar scrutiny if he wanted to be an accountant or an electrician as a secondary job to being an officer.

Pierson said he holds no resentment toward the force. He plans to reapply in three or four years.

For now, he has decided to chase his mixed martial arts dream, and hopes to fight in UFC 131 in Toronto on April 30.

In the meantime, he hopes youngsters aspiring to be fighters/police officers learn from his “Pimp Daddy” tale of woe.

“Especially in the digital age,” he said. “The decisions you make now do affect you in the future.”

This all begs the question: would you rather get a ticket from Pimp Daddy or Steven Seagal?