LAS VEGAS — Floyd Mayweather Jr. spent a night in a Las Vegas jail before his release Friday on a misdemeanor battery warrant stemming from an allegation that the boxer poked a security guard in the face last month outside his home.
The arrest was the undefeated boxer’s second in three months. His lawyer alleges that police and prosecutors overreacted to a minor criminal accusation and that the 33-year-old Mayweather was getting “unequal punitive exaggerated treatment.”
“This is a misdemeanor,” attorney Richard Wright told The Associated Press. He noted that police usually write a ticket for a misdemeanor or issue a court summons at the jail.
Wright accused district attorney David Roger of “going out of his way to treat (Mayweather) differently than anyone else.”
Roger didn’t immediately respond to messages seeking comment.
Mayweather was arrested just before midnight Thursday at the posh Bellagio resort on the Las Vegas Strip and booked early Friday into the Clark County jail without bail.
Police initially said the boxer might remain in jail pending a Monday court date. But defense attorney Karen Winckler intervened, and Mayweather was freed less than 12 hours after his arrest.
The misdemeanor charge stems from a confrontation Nov. 15. Authorities allege Mayweather poked a 21-year-old security guard repeatedly in the left cheek during a loud verbal confrontation over parking tickets. Mayweather’s attorneys have denied wrongdoing on his behalf.
The warrant was issued Dec. 8 by a Las Vegas justice of the peace, but he immediately recalled it. It was reinstated Dec. 13 after prosecutors complained that Mayweather was receiving preferential treatment.
The judge, Tony Abbatangelo, scheduled a Tuesday hearing to determine whether Mayweather should remain free pending trial. The misdemeanor case carries a possible six months in jail and a $1,000 fine.
Mayweather is one of boxing’s richest and most recognizable figures, with 25 knockouts in his 41 wins. He goes by the nickname “Money,” and earned more than $20 million in May from a single fight in Las Vegas against “Sugar” Shane Mosley.
But Mayweather also has been dogged in recent years by allegations of violence and confrontations at home and at Las Vegas clubs.
Mayweather has misdemeanor battery and assault convictions in Las Vegas and his hometown of Grand Rapids, Mich., and is facing a felony coercion, grand larceny and robbery case stemming from a September dispute with his children and their mother at her home.
He faces trial Jan. 24 in that case and could face up to 34 years in prison if convicted.