Bond set at $50,000 for Michael Pavlik

YOUNGSTOWN — Bond has been set at $50,000 for Michael Pavlik, the older brother of middleweight boxing champion Kelly Pavlik.

Michael Pavlik, 33, made his initial court appearance by video this morning from Mahoning County jail before Judge Robert P. Milich of Youngstown Municipal Court on a fifth degree felony charge of domestic violence and a third degree felony charge of abduction.

Although Pavlik entered no pleas in court, his lawyer, Ben Joltin, said after court that his client asserts his complete innocence and believes he will be exonerated. Joltin said he expected Pavlik would be released on bond today.

Judge Milich set the bond at $25,000 per charge and bound the case over to the county grand jury after Pavlik waived his right to a preliminary hearing in municipal court. The judge also ordered Pavlik to have no contact with the alleged victim.

City Prosecutor Jay Macejko said the domestic violence charge is a felony because the alleged victim was pregnant. The abduction charge pertains to the alleged restraint of the accuser’s liberty in Pavlik’s Cornell Avenue residence where the alleged offenses occurred, he added.

Michael Pavlik is charged with punching a 33-year-old woman in the right eye, throwing her onto a glass coffee table and dragging her across the floor on Friday.

The accuser said Pavlik punched her in her nose on Saturday, slammed her against a wall and threatened to kill her and himself if she went to the police.

Michael Pavlik, who surrendered to police on Tuesday, has been a cornerman, team coordinator and media handler for his brother’s boxing enterprise.