Former Pacer Jackson pleads guilty in strip club fight

INDIANAPOLIS – Stephen Jackson pleaded guilty Wednesday to criminal recklessness for firing a gun outside a strip club and was ordered to pay a $5,000 fine and perform 100 hours of community service.\nIn exchange for the guilty plea, the Golden State Warrior player had a one-year jail sentence suspended, and the judge ordered him to serve a year’s probation. Two misdemeanor counts of battery and disorderly conduct were dismissed as part of the agreement with prosecutors.\nJackson said he was happy the case was finished.\n“It’s a position I put myself in, but I thank God that it’s over with,” Jackson, dressed in a dark suit with no tie, said after the hearing.\nJackson was arrested with two other men outside Indianapolis’ Club Rio on Oct. 6 while he was playing for the Indiana Pacers. He told police he fired shots in the air to try to break up a fight. The original criminal recklessness charge carried a prison term of six months to three years.\nJackson was traded from the Pacers to Golden State in January.\nIn February, Deon Willford, who hit Jackson with a car during the incident, was convicted of felony battery in a bench trial and sentenced to two years in prison, two years on probation and 100 hours community service.\nWillford was ordered by the judge to pay some of the costs of $1,400 worth of dental work Jackson needed after the fight. Jackson chipped some teeth and had to have plastic surgery on his lip.\nWillford hit Jackson with his car after the fight started. Willford claimed self defense at his trial, testifying that Jackson was walking toward his car and pointing a gun at him.\nOther witnesses said Jackson was walking away from Willford’s car and had no weapon out when he was hit. Jackson testified at the trial that he was hit after he fired shots in the air from his pearl-handled 9 mm pistol to try to break up the fight.\nJackson’s attorney told the judge that Jackson’s athletic ability allowed him to leap out of the car’s path and avoid more serious injuries.\nThe third man charged, Raymel Mattocks, pleaded guilty last month to possession of marijuana and was fined $1,000 and given a 60-day suspended sentence.\nThe fight started after Willford’s cousin, Quentin “Fingers” Willford, got into an argument with a group of people who accompanied Jackson to the club.\nThat group includes current Pacers Jamaal Tinsley and Marquis Daniels, who were not charged. Both do face charges in a separate bar scuffle that police say happened on Feb. 6.\nAt the time, Jackson was on probation for his role in a brawl between Indiana Pacers players and Detroit Pistons fans in 2004. Jackson pleaded no contest to misdemeanor assault and battery charges in September 2005 for his role in the 2004 brawl.\nA Michigan judge ruled that the Indiana charges constituted a violation of Jackson’s probation.