Rodman arrested at bar in Newport

Jessica Garrison

NEWPORT BEACH -- Dennis Rodman, former Lakers and Chicago Bulls player,

spent part of the night in jail Saturday after police arrested him for

being drunk and creating a disturbance in a bar. He was later released on

his own recognizance.

About 9 p.m., police were called to Woody’s Wharf after Rodman, a Newport

Beach resident, and another man, Donn Emerson of San Diego, got into a

scuffle.

Rodman didn’t start the disturbance at the restaurant bar, where he is a

regular, but according to police he was obviously intoxicated, and was

intentionally and repeatedly pounding his head into the bar’s ceiling.

They told the 38-year-old former basketball player, known for his

tattoos, his dyed hair, and his short-lived, Las-Vegas-born marriage,

that he would have to leave, and offered to call him a cab or find a

sober person to take him home. The bar’s owner had also asked Rodman to

go home, according to police.

Rodman allegedly told police he wasn’t going anywhere. He said he planned

to stay at the bar and drink even more, according to police.

So they arrested him. He was taken to Newport Beach City Jail and booked

on suspicion of disorderly conduct and public intoxication, a

misdemeanor. Police released him on his own recognizance at 3:15 a.m.

Sunday

Police said the basketball-player-turned pro wrestler was, despite his

infamous temper, not unduly furious about being locked up.

“He was about as pissed as anyone would be going to jail,” said Newport

Beach Police Sgt. Jim Kaminksi.

Rodman will be arraigned at the Harbor Justice Center on Oct. 1.

This is not Rodman’s first brush with the law this year.

After he was dropped from the Lakers in April, a Kentucky woman,

claiming he had grabbed her in a Las Vegas hotel, filed suit against him.

A casino security guard also sued him this spring, charging that Rodman

grabbed her breast in the Los Vegas Hilton.

As police were arresting Rodman on Saturday, Emerson, 36, tried to

interfere, and so police arrested him for obstructing a police officer.

Ray Brewster, the manager at Woody’s, said staff there were taking the

incident in stride. “We’ve had bench-clearing brawls, so it’s not that

unusual.”