Jan-Michael Vincent Acquitted of Battery
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Actor Jan-Michael Vincent, who has been in and out of courtrooms for several years, was acquitted Friday in Santa Monica Superior Court of felony battery for allegedly punching a female acquaintance in the face.
A jury found Vincent, 41, the star of the canceled CBS-TV series “Airwolf,” innocent on its third day of deliberations.
After the verdict, jurors surrounded the ecstatic Vincent, tears running down his face, outside the courtroom and asked for autographs.
Prosecutors had charged that Vincent punched Chenoa Lee Ellis, 35, at his Malibu residence in September, 1985, after accusing her of causing trouble between himself and his live-in girlfriend, Joanne Robinson, 26.
Ellis suffered a broken nose and a split lip that required 16 stitches.
Vincent, however, took the witness stand on his own behalf and testified that he never struck the woman.
“If I had struck her,” he testified, “I would have done horrible damage to her. It’s brutal what a man can do with his fists.”
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