Pavlik pleads not guilty to OVI

Staff report

Austintown

Former middleweight boxing champion Kelly Pavlik entered a written plea of not guilty Wednesday in Mahoning County Court in Austintown to a charge of operating a motor vehicle while under the influence.

Pavlik was cited about 12:25 a.m. Monday at the Youngstown-Niles exit on the Ohio Turnpike. He has a pretrial hearing date of March 17.

A trooper for the Ohio State Highway Patrol was investigating a complaint of an impaired driver on the turnpike when he spotted Pavlik’s car at the exit. The car matched the description of the car he was looking for.

Pavlik also had lost his turnpike ticket at the time and could not exit the turnpike. As the trooper investigated, he determined Pavlik may be drunk. Pavlik refused a breath test, which results in an automatic one year license suspension under Ohio law.

This is Pavlik’s second brush with the law this year. He faces a pending misdemeanor theft charge in county court in Canfield after a cabdriver accused him of failing to pay cab fare earlier this year, after getting a late-night ride home from a Youngstown bar.

He has a Jan. 31 pretrial hearing in that case.

Pavlik has had issues in the past with alcohol including a charge of driving under the influence in 2011. He pleaded guilty in April 2012 in the Canfield court to a reduced charge of failure to control. He has attended a treatment program.

Pavlik retired from boxing in January after a career that saw him become the middleweight world champion in 2007.