Phil in Paris
01-11-2005, 09:19 PM
1/11/2005, 5:47 p.m. PT
By MICHAEL WEISSENSTEIN
The Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) — An arrest warrant was issued Tuesday for a "Howard Stern Show" regular nicknamed Crazy Cabbie after he failed to appear in court for his tax evasion case.
The WXRK-FM disc jockey, whose given name is Lee Mroszak, has been hospitalized for psychiatric and substance-abuse problems, his lawyer said.
Mroszak has been regularly calling the Stern show from the hospital but has been out of contact with the probation officer assigned to monitor him as he awaits sentencing, prosecutors said.
Judge John Gleeson issued the warrant after the DJ missed a federal court hearing Tuesday to decide whether his bail should be revoked. The warrant goes into effect if Mroszak does not contact the probation department by Thursday afternoon.
Mroszak pleaded guilty to tax evasion last month, saying he did not pay taxes for three years beginning in 2001. That year he won $100,000 battling fellow Stern regular "Stuttering John" Melendez in a five-round amateur boxing match that drew a sellout crowd of more than 4,000 people to Atlantic City, N.J., at $100 a ticket.
He faces up to a year in prison.
Mroszak became unstable after he and his girlfriend split, and he committed himself to a psychiatric ward and a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center, defense attorney Allan Passim said.
Passim said prosecutors were unsympathetic to the plight of Mroszak, a Gulf War veteran who he said suffers from conditions related to his military service.
"The guy went off," Passim said. "What is the rush to put a man in jail?"
http://www.oregonlive.com/newsflash/entertainment/index.ssf?/base/entertainment-3/110549484016960.xml&storylist=entertainment
By MICHAEL WEISSENSTEIN
The Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) — An arrest warrant was issued Tuesday for a "Howard Stern Show" regular nicknamed Crazy Cabbie after he failed to appear in court for his tax evasion case.
The WXRK-FM disc jockey, whose given name is Lee Mroszak, has been hospitalized for psychiatric and substance-abuse problems, his lawyer said.
Mroszak has been regularly calling the Stern show from the hospital but has been out of contact with the probation officer assigned to monitor him as he awaits sentencing, prosecutors said.
Judge John Gleeson issued the warrant after the DJ missed a federal court hearing Tuesday to decide whether his bail should be revoked. The warrant goes into effect if Mroszak does not contact the probation department by Thursday afternoon.
Mroszak pleaded guilty to tax evasion last month, saying he did not pay taxes for three years beginning in 2001. That year he won $100,000 battling fellow Stern regular "Stuttering John" Melendez in a five-round amateur boxing match that drew a sellout crowd of more than 4,000 people to Atlantic City, N.J., at $100 a ticket.
He faces up to a year in prison.
Mroszak became unstable after he and his girlfriend split, and he committed himself to a psychiatric ward and a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center, defense attorney Allan Passim said.
Passim said prosecutors were unsympathetic to the plight of Mroszak, a Gulf War veteran who he said suffers from conditions related to his military service.
"The guy went off," Passim said. "What is the rush to put a man in jail?"
http://www.oregonlive.com/newsflash/entertainment/index.ssf?/base/entertainment-3/110549484016960.xml&storylist=entertainment