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Man sentenced for keg melee
By BILL COATS
Published October 5, 2006
TAMPA - Authorities can't prove where the beer went that night, but they know what happened to the keg. Walking to his car in the dead of night, Hillsborough County Sheriff's Deputy Vernon Stairs was startled to hear glass shattering. He saw Kyle Wise, then 18, hold a 15.5-gallon Miller beer keg head high and slam it into the patrol car's right rear window. "The next thing I heard was my own voice, telling him, 'Stop! You're under arrest,' " Stairs recalled. Instead, Wise and several companions ran away. Stairs caught Wise and tried to subdue him. "He took a good swing, and I ducked, and he hit the top of my head," Stairs said. A passer-by grabbed Wise by his head, and the struggle ended. Wednesday morning, three months later, a wiser Wise pleaded no contest to two felonies involving the scuffle with Stairs and a third for bashing his car. Circuit Judge Ronald Ficarrotta sentenced Wise to 18 months of probation, 100 hours of community service and a $941 payment for repairs to the cruiser. Wise wouldn't comment to the Times. The incident happened July 2, after Stairs disbanded a gathering of Wise and 11 others at the pool of Tuscany Bay Apartments near Westchase. "He probably was irritated," Stairs said. Bill Coats can be reached at coats@sptimes.com or 813 269-5309.
[Last modified October 5, 2006, 01:10:14]
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