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A real stunner

The choking thing
So what’s up with basketball players getting popped for choking their girlfriends? Seen a rash of those busts in recent years, going back to Missouri’s Ricky Clemons in ’03, Wisconsin’s Boo Wade in ’04, Michigan’s Daniel Horton last year, and Art “The Horse Puncherer” Long from Cincinnati years back. Of course the crime is not restricted to college hoops players. There’s always Lawrence Phillips, who has the rare honor of getting arrested for this charge twice; technical foul collector Rasheed Wallace, former big-10 running back Booker Stanley; Seattle Seahawk Sean Locklear; and numerous others. But it does seem to be mainly a college-hoops thing, the choking business, as does throwing your cell phone at your girlfriend’s head. In contrast, ramming your girlfriend’s car with your Hummer or your Escalade seems to be mainly a pro football matter, largely confined to linemen and running backs.

In any case, this time around it’s former NC State Wolfpack hoops star Marcus Melvin, for whom an arrest warrant for “felonious assault by strangulation” was issued last week by a North Carolina judge. The warrant comes on the heels of an incident in August in which Melvin’s girlfriend, Shaunesi DeBerry, apparently found out that he had gotten another woman pregnant. In the ensuing heated argument, Melvin’s hands found their way to DeBerry’s neck. Melvin was busted at the time and then failed to show for a court appearance, leading to the issuance of the warrant.

Have they checked Italy? Last time we checked, that’s where Melvin was playing.