Sports journalist and television personality, Jay Mariotti has been charged with seven misdemeanors by the city prosecutors in Los Angeles. He will be arraigned at a hearing on Friday September 17.

The charges stem from his arrest in the early morning hours of August 21 this year. According to witnesses, Mariotti and a woman identified as his girlfriend were at a restaurant/bar and began to exchange angry words. Their argument apparently continued when they arrived at an apartment building in the beach town of Venice, CA.

An eyewitness called police after he saw the argument turn physical when the pair entered the lobby of the building. The Los Angeles Times reported that when police arrived at the scene, Mariotti’s companion had scrapes and bruises. He was promptly arrested on suspicion of felony domestic abuse, and after posting $50,000 bail, was released. He hasn’t been seen in public since that time, quite a departure from the usual in celeb or pseudo-celeb domestic scrapes here in Southern California. Even TMZ has had a hard time prying any information from the authorities.

Since his arrest, he was suspended by one employer and just not utilized by another. AOL FanHouse suspended him from contributing columns and ESPN hasn’t used him since that time on “Around The Horn”. At least AOL was upfront about it when they made the announcement. ESPN hid behind the fact that the program was on hiatus the week after the incident. When it returned to the air they merely said that he wasn’t scheduled for the next five days.

It took two weeks for the LA District Attorney’s Office to decide that it wouldn’t press felony charges against Mariotti. Then it was up to the City Attorney to determine if lesser charges were appropriate. That announcement came on Monday, September 13.The Los Angeles Times reported the misdemeanors include two counts of domestic violence with injury, two counts of domestic violence, one count of grand theft, one count of false imprisonment and one count of vandalism. TMZ.com giddily reported that the grand theft charge is a result of Mariotti allegedly taking the woman’s purse and keys from her. Apparently the hand bag is pricey and thus qualifies as a misdemeanor theft crime.

Jay Mariotti has a reputation as someone who pounces on athletes and sports figures after they tangle with the justice system. He has little patience for excuses about bad behavior and rarely shows compassion or understanding, no matter the circumstances surrounding a criminal charge, a DUI or other incident of that type.

After the announcement by the LA City Attorney, Mariotti’s lawyer told media that the allegations are “inaccurate and sensationalized.”We are confident that the facts will show the complainant was extremely intoxicated that night and abusive toward Mr. Mariotti,” Debra Wong Yang said.

Unlike other instances of inappropriate conduct by ESPN employees, the network allowed its on-air personalities to discuss the Mariotti mess. On the day “Around The Horn” returned to the air, the panelists debated the subject. The angle they took was one of other journalists commenting on why fellow media members were ganging up on poor little Mariotti. In other words, they got to say “I told you so” about Jay’s diatribes that never cut anyone slack and looked to the most sensational angle in any story.

When he appears in LA’s downtown criminal courts building on Friday, you can expect a circus. He will stand up and plead not guilty to the charges and then the hard work begins. His attorney will hope to find facts that convince the prosecutors to drop some of the charges and plea bargain the rest of them away. His career on television will depend on how many get dismissed and which ones he pleads to. If he rolls the dice and decides to go to trial, the time it would take might end his career as he knows it, whether or not there is an acquittal.

Used with permission of the author.

Paula Duffy is a national sports columnist for Examiner.com and the Huffington Post and regularly comments on sports/legal matters for radio affiliates of ESPN and Fox Sports. She founded the sports information site, Incidental Contact, is the author of a line of audio books designed for sports novices and in her spare time practices law in Los Angeles. 

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