Former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson pleaded guilty Monday to charges of drug possession and driving under the influence stemming from a traffic stop last year as he was leaving a nightclub.
Tyson spoke in hushed tones as he acknowledged to a judge that he had cocaine and was impaired when he was stopped for driving erratically in Scottsdale on Dec. 29.
He pleaded guilty to a single felony count of cocaine possession and a misdemeanor DUI count. A felony charge of possession of drug paraphernalia and a second misdemeanor DUI charge were dropped, according to the terms of a plea agreement.
Tyson faces a maximum of four years and three months in prison when he is sentenced Nov. 19.
Defense lawyer David Chesnoff said Tyson has been clean and sober for eight months and has been talking to community groups about his own drug problems.
“It’s obvious this was a crime he was committing against himself,” Chesnoff said.
Police stopped Tyson after the boxer had spent the evening at Scottsdale’s Pussycat Lounge. An officer said he saw Tyson wiping a white substance off the dashboard of his black BMW, and that his speech was slurred. Authorities found bags of cocaine in Tyson’s pocket and in his car.
Tyson told officers later that he used cocaine “whenever I can get my hands on it,” and that he preferred to smoke it in Marlboro cigarettes with the tobacco pulled out.
According to a court document, Tyson admitted to being an addict.
Tyson also told police that he used marijuana that day and was taking the antidepressant Zoloft.
Since his arrest, Tyson checked himself into an inpatient treatment program for what his lawyer called “various addictions.” Chesnoff had said previously that he’d try to keep the boxer out of prison.
