LAS VEGAS, September 11 – Fighter Floyd Mayweather jnr was arrested on Friday on a theft charge stemming from a domestic violence complaint by his former girlfriend, Las Vegas police said.
Mayweather was booked on a grand larceny charge at the Clark County jail and held on 3,000 dollars bail, Las Vegas Police Officer Bill Cassell said.
Mayweather’s lawyer, Richard Wright, said Mayweather is accused of taking an iPhone from Josie Harris, his former girlfriend and the mother of three of his children.
Wright denied the allegations against the fighter and said Mayweather surrendered to authorities and would cooperate in the investigation.
On Thursday, Harris made a police complaint and sought a Family Court protection order claiming Mayweather pulled her hair, punched her in the head and twisted her arm while she screamed for their children, who range in age from seven to 10 years old, to call 911.
Police said Thursday that Harris was treated at a Las Vegas hospital for minor injuries.
"Please order Floyd Mayweather to not try and contact me," Harris wrote in an application for a protection order that said the couple separated in May after living together for seven years.
"Floyd has threatened to have other people do harm to me as well and if (there) is a way I can be protected from that please help me," she says in the document.
Mayweather was acquitted by a Nevada jury in July 2005 after being accused of hitting and kicking Harris during an quarrel outside a Las Vegas nightclub.
Harris, then 25, recanted her allegations and testified that she lied to police because she was angry that Mayweather had left her for another woman.
Mayweather, 33, is unbeaten in 41 professional fights.
He earned more than 20 million dollars in May for his Las Vegas victory over Shane Mosley.
However, negotiations for a proposed mega-fight between Mayweather and Filipino pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao have repeatedly run aground, and Mayweather provoked criticism last week for a short video posted on the internet in which he denigrated Pacquiao.
