Why I route for Mike Tyson!

I am so happy Mike Tyson has a new lifestyle and new show on Broadway!

I have known the troubled heavy weight champ for years. I was proud to say, we were friends, when it brought kind of reactions like: "You are friends! You are joking, right?"

I was not. I have always found Mike, a hungry person for education. When he was not under the influence, he would behave like a true gentleman. Yes, yes ...

So at last - after coping with the tragic death of his 4 years old daughter on May 2009  - he cleaned up. He is pursuing his acting career, after successful appearances in "Hangover" and its sequel. He is telling his story on a Broadway stage. How cool is that!

Promoting his gig, Mike is now admitting , that he has been battling addictions. Yes, he has made lots of mistakes, including mistreatment of women.

BUT NO! He keeps insisting that he did NOT rape Desiree Washington.

One can think: what is the big deal? After all - the ex-world heavy weight boxing champ had served his full sentence in prison. If he is going public with "the new, reformed Mike" - why to insist on this single account??

Why? Because he might be telling the truth.

***

I am making this story public for the first time.

After Tyson was indicted for raping Desiree Washington, I conducted the only TV interview with her father Donald, at his home. It was in a poor neighborhood. Donald shared with us videos of his daughter, a wannabe beauty Queen, as a cheer leader. The father's account was painful, but - I must say - it smelled funny. It looked like money - or lack of it - was a big factor there.

After that, then Tyson's body guard, Rudy Gonzales brought us exclusive footage of the champ, dancing with women. It featured lavish lifestyle, lots of sex and booze. BUT Rudy was convinced, Tyson was set up. Rudy stated, that he had taken care of similar situations with other girls: "After spending the night (with Mike), we sent them home with limos, bought them watches, flowers, made them feel good …"


Desiree Washington met Mike Tyson at his hotel suite in Indiana after midnight. By then, Rudy Gonzales was long gone: he was let by Tyson's management to go for the night. So there was nobody there to give Desiree a song & a dance after the sex was over.

     

When Tyson was in jail, haunted by Tyson's firm denial, and Gonzales' candid account, I called my friend, lawyer Alan Dershowitz who was working on his appeal. 


Dershowitz's claim-to-fame came when he won the appeal for his client Claus von Bülow, a British socialite of German and Danish ancestry who was accused of the attempted murder of his wife Sunny von Bulow, by administering an insulin overdose in 1980 which left her in a persistent vegetative state for the rest of her life, but his conviction in the first trial was reversed and he was found not guilty in both his retrials. A film, starring Glen Close, had made Dershowitz a household name. 


But when Dershowitz assured me: “Daphne, I am doing anything I can for Mike. Don't worry ..." I continued with my gut feeling. 

                                                                                 *** 

The hotel suite, where the alleged rape had taken place, was close to the public. Shortly after the conversation with Dershowitz, I called the hotel's duty manager, played my charm and asked to check into this suite. While my Fox TV cameraman and producer were settling in, I put on a bath rob, and tried to feel what Desiree had been going through …

According to her story, Tyson jumped on her in the bedroom area. The suite was an L shape: a living room, a bedroom, and a bathroom connected to the bedroom. I realized for a frightened girl, there was no other place but to run to the bathroom from the bedroom area. And that way, she would have locked herself in, but she would have had no way to go out and seek help.

Intrigued with this observation, I left my cameraman and producer in the bedroom area and I ran into the bathroom, and locked myself in …

WHAT DID I SEE THERE???

Not one - but two (2) phones in that locked area. I checked the phones. They were working. I called downstairs and asked the concierge for a wake up call and newspapers for the next morning. Then - I called room service and had a lovely chat about the menu options for my breakfast … And no, neither my cameraman nor my producer, who were just outside of my door, heard any of my conversations on the phone.

SO HOW COME A FRIGHTENED GIRL DIDN'T PICK UP ONE OF THESE PHONES AND ASK FOR HELP???

I called Dershowitz the next day, and told him: "Mike did not rape her!"

Dershowitz told me that he knows that too. But he added: "I had already filed the appeal .."

***

Years later - I was having lunch with Mike, and Joe and Katherine Jackson in Las Vegas, Nevada. Their son Michael had just been indicted for alleged pedophilia. They were devastated. I invited Mike to give them support. We discussed the legal system.

Then I turned to Mike and I told him about my visit to the hotel suite which changed his life and sent him to prison. His mood suddenly changed. He looked at me and said: "Daphne, I paid so many people, trusted them ...You know, I did not rape ...You know that because you - unlike them -  cared to check it out  .."