The preliminary hearings in the respective cases of Scandal actor Columbus Short and former professional heavyweight boxer Exum Speight are on the court docket Monday morning at the Airport Courthouse near LAX.
Short, who is a leading actor on the current television series Scandal, was accused of slugging a man during a fight at a West Los Angeles restaurant mid-March. He is facing one count of felony battery.
The incident took place at Gabe’s Bar and Grill on Sepulveda Boulevard near National Boulevard in Rancho Park. According to news reports, Short was at the venue celebrating a couple’s engagement when he allegedly engaged in an argument with another patron. The victim, reportedly a 37-year-old male, was transported to the hospital after the alleged incident.
If convicted, Short faces up to four years in prison.
In the same Airport Courthouse, the preliminary hearing in the case of a former professional boxer allegedly killing his manager in 1987 is also on the docket.
Speight, whose claim to fame was a 1996 boxing bout against Ukrainian heavyweight boxer Wladimir “Dr. Steelhammer” Klitschko, has been in custody since September 2013, when he was reportedly arrested in connection to the 1987 slaying of his manager.
According to news reports, the arrest was made about 27 years after the 30-year-old Douglas Stumler was found dead in his West Los Angeles apartment because cold case detectives were able to use advanced forensics evidence in 2012 to identify DNA originally collected from Stumler’s body in 1987 as Speight’s.
Though arrested in San Fernando last year, news reports indicated Speight recently held a job working security at a marijuana clinic in Venice Beach.
There is a chance the respective June 9 preliminary hearings in both cases are delayed and rescheduled for another date. WestsideToday.com will update when information on both cases are made available.
