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Tapia pleads guilty; seeks treatment

By Joline Gutierrez Krueger
Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Beleaguered boxer Johnny Tapia has pleaded guilty to a felony drug possession charge for an incident in March that nearly cost him his life.

Tapia's plea, reached at the last minute Monday morning before state District Judge Kenneth Martinez in Albuquerque, avoids the need to take the five-time world champion's case to a grand jury hearing, which was scheduled today.

Under the plea, Tapia, 40, will receive no prison time but instead will serve 18 months of probation. Deputy District Attorney Mark Drebing will ask that Tapia undergo court-mandated substance-abuse treatment during that time.

Tapia, however, is not waiting for the court. He has agreed to immediately enter Second Chance, a controversial inpatient treatment program with roots in Scientology.

The court has agreed to postpone sentencing until Tapia completes the program, Drebing said.

Tapia was taken to Presbyterian Hospital on March 12 after being found unresponsive in a room at the Country Inn and Suites in the Northeast Heights. His wife and manager, Teresa Tapia, called 911 and reported that he wasn't breathing.

Tapia's condition was listed as critical for three days but improved dramatically after that.

According to an Albuquerque Police Department report, three baggies containing a powdery substance, later determined to be cocaine, were found in the Tapias' hotel room.

It was the latest bout with drug abuse in the boxer's career. He was suspended from boxing from October 1990 to March 1994 after testing positive for cocaine.

Tapia's brother-in-law and nephew were killed in a one-car accident on U.S. 550 as they headed from Farmington to Albuquerque to visit Tapia in the hospital.

Drebing said that in cases in which charges are for possession and not trafficking, when appropriate, the focus is on treatment and rehabilitation, not incarceration.