Posted at 8:30 a.m., Thursday, April 5, 2007
Kings' Artest has hearing postponed
Associated Press
AUBURN, Calif. — A court hearing about misdemeanor domestic battery charges filed against Sacramento Kings forward Ron Artest was postponed for three weeks today.Artest did not attend the brief proceeding in Placer County Superior Court.
"Both sides continue to talk and pursue their independent investigations," Artest's attorney, William Portanova, said after the proceeding.
The matter was continued to April 26.
Artest was charged March 21 with battery and corporal injury to a spouse, false imprisonment and dissuading a witness from reporting a crime. Each carries a maximum penalty of a year in county jail. He has pleaded not guilty.
The charges stem from a March 5 disturbance at Artest's estate in Loomis, 25 miles northeast of Sacramento. A Placer County sheriff's report said Artest grabbed a woman and pushed her down, slapped her face and took a phone from her the first time she tried to call 911. The woman was not named in the report, but the charges against Artest are for spousal abuse.
There were no changes to a judge's routine order last month that Artest stay at least 100 yards away from his wife and children until further notice, said Portanova and Assistant District Attorney Dan Quick.
