National Basketball Association

Bar-fight suit against Iverson dismissed

Published Nov. 15, 2011 12:00 a.m. ET

foxsports

A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit Tuesday seeking $2.5 million from former NBA star and Detroit Piston Allen Iverson over a 2009 bar fight.

U.S. District Court Judge Nancy Edmunds found no evidence that Iverson punched an Ohio man or that the man who struck him was linked to the player, The Detroit News reported.

Guy Walker, who claims he was assaulted by an Iverson security guard, plans to appeal, said his lawyer Gregory Lattimer.

Iverson's lawyer Michael Cafferty said the man accused of striking Walker was not working for Iverson that night.

''He is very gratified and feels very vindicated,'' Cafferty said.

In a deposition in August, Iverson answered questions from Lattimer, who won a $260,000 judgment against him a few years ago in a federal case in Washington, D.C.

In the deposition, he denied playing any role in a 2009 bar fight at the South Beach Pizza Bar nightclub in Detroit.

''I die before I let you get me this time,'' Iverson said in the transcript, details of which were published by The News (http://bit.ly/vyhuQO ). ''I'm as clean as the Board of Health man.''

Iverson was hustled out of the bar by another bodyguard, Ralph Godbee Jr., who now is Detroit's police chief. At the time, Godbee was retired from the police department, running his own consulting firm, and working on a private security detail.

Iverson said he hired bodyguards to stay out of trouble.

''I get sued for stuff I don't got nothing to do with. I ain't involved with. Ain't nobody never said ... I touched them,'' Iverson, 36, said. ''I don't do nothing to nobody, buddy.''

Lattimer said he reached a confidential settlement with Iverson in a third case.

''It was quite something,'' Lattimer said of the nearly two-hour deposition. ''I don't know why he was so outraged. It's not like I sue him every day.''

Cafferty said the deposition was entertaining.

''I think Allen just really let his hair down,'' Cafferty said. ''He wanted to express himself because the same group of attorneys had sued him in several other cases. He was a little angry.''