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Liston Cleared in Drunk Driving Charge

Jan. 30, 1965 - Sonny Liston, former heavyweight champion, was found innocent today in Denver, Co., of a charge of drunken driving.

Liston said he was surprised at the verdict. “If you had a beer, don’t drive with nobody — walk,” he told newsmen following the decision.

Liston, 30 years old, who could have been sentenced to as much as a year in prison and fined $1,000, convinced a County Court jury he was “dancing,” not stumbling, at the time of his arrest on Christmas Day. The arrest involved about 10 policemen, who finally put Liston into a police wagon after “a shoving match.”

The boxer, who once spent 29 months in the Missouri State Penitentiary for robbery and larceny, was behind bars in Denver for four hours Christmas Day before finally being released.

Liston admitted being uncooperative, but he refuted police reports that he was stumbling near his car before getting into it at a restaurant. He said he was doing a dance step to the music of his 1965 Cadillac’s stereo tape recorder.

He also argued that the police who arrested him “would have made a preacher uncooperative. I felt I was being picked on.”

He said his companion, 23-year-old Richard Zepher of Denver, was driving. He said Zepher spilled a soft drink onto his seat, and because of the accident he made the younger man drive.

When told by prosecution officials that police had seen him drive into the parking lot area, Liston replied: “So, that’s when they should have made the arrest.”

Liston’s wife, Geraldine, took the witness stand earlier, testifying that the ex-champ had had two cups of egg nog earlier in the day. The egg nog had only a small amount of cognac in it, she said. The boxer testified the only other drink he had was a beer.

The six-member jury panel deliberated 1½ hours before delivering its verdict.

If Liston had been convicted, his rematch with Muhammad Ali would have been called off. The winner of tomorrow night’s fight between George Chuvalo and Floyd Patterson would have been Ali’s next opponent.



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