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Actor Convicted of Abusing Heidi Fleiss

Posted on: Sunday, 17 August 2003, 06:00 CDT

Actor Tom Sizemore was convicted Friday of one count of physically abusing former Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss and several charges of harassing and annoying her, but he was acquitted of 10 other counts.

The 41-year-old star of "Black Hawk Down" and "Saving Private Ryan" faces up to four years in prison, but he and his attorney focused on the acquittals on the majority of charges, including three of the most serious.

"I thank all of my fans who continue to be fans," Sizemore, who is free on $100,000 bail, said outside court. "I would like to put this behind me and do what I have always loved doing, making movies."

The actor was tried on 16 counts of injuring, threatening and harassing Fleiss and vandalism. The jury convicted him of six counts and one lesser offense within a count on which he was otherwise acquitted.

"The whole thing is very ugly to me," Fleiss told The Associated Press in a telephone interview after the verdicts. "I loved that man and I was very good to him and what he did to me was wrong. "

Fleiss said she knew that coming into court "I was in such a minus position because of my past," but she was pleased that Sizemore was held accountable.

"Of course I don't feel good that someone has to go to jail. But all I did was tell the truth. In fact I left a whole lot out," she said, adding that her feeling about Sizemore now is "I want to pretend I never met him."

Deputy City Attorney Robert Cha said the convictions were serious.

"In this case the message is that regardless of your socioeconomic status, and regardless of how the public perceives you, and regardless of celebrity, if there is corporal infliction of violence on a woman and it is supported, we will file it and aggressively prosecute it," Cha said.

Cha said he will make a sentencing recommendation when the actor returns to court on Oct. 2. In the interim, he said, he will decide what to do about another case in which Sizemore is accused of seven counts of domestic violence involving another woman he was dating.

Superior Court Judge Antonio Barreto Jr. urged attorneys to try to reach a "global resolution" of both cases.

During six days of testimony the jury heard angry and obscene messages left by Sizemore on Fleiss' answering machine and accounts of violent fights and of the actor smashing things.

The first three verdicts declared him innocent of charges of inflicting corporal injury on Fleiss, but he was found guilty of a fourth corporal injury count stemming from an April 8, 2002, incident in which Fleiss said he punched her in the jaw at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills. The prosecution had pictures of the injuries taken by a friend.

The jury also found him guilty of one count of making a criminal threat to Fleiss which put her in fear of her safety, but the panel acquitted him of making similar threats on other days. Sizemore was also found guilty of making obscene phone calls with the intent of annoying her and of minor vandalism.

Fleiss, 37, said during her testimony that Sizemore earned $11 million during their relationship, and the case came to illustrate how domestic abuse can cut across economic strata.

The jury heard of the stark contrasts between the high life of the two celebrities - attending premieres and parties and driving $100,000 sports cars - and then the grim scenes of abuse at their luxury home.

Fleiss, who gained notoriety in the 1990s, began a two-year relationship with Sizemore after serving 21 months in prison for money laundering, tax evasion and attempted pandering.

When Fleiss took the stand she sobbed as she testified that her lover violently abused her.

She claimed she didn't immediately report the abuse because "I was on parole, the convicted criminal, and he was the all-American guy and could send me back to prison, which was the worst thing that could happen to me."

Sizemore did not testify, but his defense portrayed Fleiss to the jury as a liar, a "pseudo-celebrity" who was trying to extort the actor in some way. Sizemore was kind to Fleiss and gave her an opportunity to be treated as a woman worth loving rather than as a felon, the defense argued.

The actor cried several times during the trial, particularly when Fleiss described the happier times in their relationship and spoke of how much she loved him.

Sizemore played Army soldiers in both of his standout roles, 1998's "Saving Private Ryan" and 2001's "Black Hawk Down."

Last fall he began starring as a Los Angeles police detective in the CBS drama "Robbery Homicide Division," but it was canceled in December just days after Sizemore was arrested after a woman reported he punched her in the face and threatened her. The network cited poor ratings and said the arrest had nothing to do with the series' demise.

The case involving the December arrest is still pending.

Sizemore starred earlier this year in Warner Bros.' "Dreamcatcher." His other films have included "Pearl Harbor,""Red Planet,""Natural Born Killers" and "Wyatt Earp."

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