Mariotti Pleads No Contest, Sells Kindle Book on Legal "Ordeal"
By Chuck Sudo in News on Sep 13, 2011 10:12PM
Former Sun-Times and AOL Fanhouse sports columnist Jay Mariotti pleaded nolo contendre in Los Angeles today to stalking and assault charges. The charges, originally felonies, were bargained down to misdemeanors, sparing the mercurial sportswriter a jail term. Instead, Mariotti was sentenced to 90 days of community service, undergo a year of counseling and five years of probation that can be ask to be reduced after three years.
The mere mention of Mariotti's name, years after he left Chicago for what he thought would be greener pastures, still makes the short hairs stand up on Jerry Reinsdorf, White Sox play-by-play man Hawk Harrelson, Rick Telander and others in the Sun-Times newsroom, and scores of Sun-times readers who gnashed their teeth so hard working through one of his columns their molars cracked. And you'd think someone who was thisclose to going to jail would show some contrition. Or at least fake it.
Not Mariotti. His attorney, Shawn Holley, said her client maintained his innocence and pleaded no contest as a "practical consideration in light of the expense and unpredictability of trial."
"Although Mr. Mariotti would have liked to have told his side of the story at trial, the fact that he is an accomplished writer provided him another avenue, in this case a book, to tell his side in an unconventional but progressive manner."
Yes, when one door closes, another opens. Showing the business acumen that led him to quit the Sun-Times in a huff for the stability of America Online, Mariotti has written a Kindle-only book detailing his dealings with the legal system.
Mariotti takes the reader to places most authors do not, detailing his ordeal in a Los Angeles court case -- the lies, run-arounds and suspicious machinations involving police, prosecutors, lawyers and a money-seeking opportunist -- at a time when the justice system is being examined more critically than ever.
We're not certain if the "money-seeking opportunist" is the girlfriend Mariotti is alleged to have assaulted. Or is it Mariotti?