ARLINGTON, Virginia -- Marv Albert, whose staccato play-by-plays helped make him one of television's most distinctive and ubiquitous sportscasters, ended a trial filled with embarrassing testimony about his sex life by pleading guilty to a misdemeanor count of assault and battery.
Hours later on Thursday, he was dismissed by NBC, where he was a leading football and basketball announcer. He also resigned from MSG, the cable network that broadcasts games of the New York Knicks and Rangers.
Albert was charged with assaulting a 42-year-old Virginia woman in an Arlington hotel room last Feb. 12.
In a plea agreement that they said they had offered him before the three-day trial began, the prosecutors agreed to drop a felony charge of forcible sodomy, which could have resulted in a jail term of five years to life. Instead, by pleading guilty to the lesser charge, he faces up to a year in jail when he is sentenced next month and a fine of up to $2,500.
Looking tired and dazed as he left the Arlington County Courthouse with his fiancee, his father and other members of his family who sat through the trial, Albert stopped briefly before a bank of microphones to thank his lawyers, family and supporters.
"I just felt I needed to end this ordeal for myself, my wonderful family, my fiancee, my friends and supporters,'' Albert said.
He declined to answer any questions.
The case became the latest celebrity trial, featuring the requisite high-powered lawyer, saturation media coverage, instant analysis by a new industry of legal commentators and a steady stream of sensational details.
This time, a courtroom in suburban Virginia became the stage for a tawdry drama, in which Albert's fiancee, parents and children listened as two women described being attacked and bitten in sexual encounters in hotel rooms.
The women said Albert asked them to bring along a third participant and, in one instance, he was described as wearing women's underwear.
The guilty plea was the surprise conclusion to a humiliating public ordeal for Albert, a sports-crazed grocer's son who rose to become one of the most prominent announcers in the United States.
As familiar as he was behind a microphone calling play-by-play, he became a celebrity in his own right, appearing 100 times on David Letterman's NBC and CBS late night shows.
"All I wanted to do then was all I wanted to do now -- be at every game, announce every basket, keep track of every point,'' Albert said in his 1993 book, "I'd Love to but I Have a Game: 27 Years Without a Life.''
Even with a pending lighter sentence, Albert, 56, faces a dim future as a sportscaster.
NBC, which allowed him to continue working after he was charged by a grand jury in May, said in a statement that Albert "asserted his innocence and assured NBC's senior management that there was no basis whatsoever to the charges,'' adding, "Today, given Mr. Albert's plea of guilty to assault and battery, NBC terminates its relationship with Marv Albert.''
The woman with whom Albert was involved complained that he bit her back and forced her to perform oral sex in a hotel room after he had broadcast a Knicks game on Feb. 12 in Landover.
As the chief witness against him, the woman testified Tuesday how sex had played a major role in their 10-year friendship, but Albert grew angry with her that night because she did not bring along another man to join them, as he had requested.
On cross-examination, Albert's lawyer, Roy Black, who in 1991 won an acquittal for William Kennedy Smith in a Florida rape case, had only limited success trying to portray the woman as a liar who had actually enjoyed the sexual activities she claimed she later found objectionable.
But Wednesday, prosecutors appeared to surprise Black by calling another woman to the stand, a former friend of Albert's who told the 12-member jury that he had bitten her twice, in 1993 and 1994, and in the second instance, while wearing women's undergarments, had tried to force her to perform oral sex.
The prosecutors had been expected to end their case Thursday, and Black had intended to open Albert's defense by introducing evidence to bring at least the first woman's credibility into question.
But Black said after the deal was announced that Judge Benjamin Kendrick blocked most attempts by the defense to challenge the woman's credibility through cross-examination and the introduction of evidence through other witnesses. As a result, Black said he was persuaded to recommend that his client accept the prosecutors' offer.
Hours later on Thursday, he was dismissed by NBC, where he was a leading football and basketball announcer. He also resigned from MSG, the cable network that broadcasts games of the New York Knicks and Rangers.
Albert was charged with assaulting a 42-year-old Virginia woman in an Arlington hotel room last Feb. 12.
In a plea agreement that they said they had offered him before the three-day trial began, the prosecutors agreed to drop a felony charge of forcible sodomy, which could have resulted in a jail term of five years to life. Instead, by pleading guilty to the lesser charge, he faces up to a year in jail when he is sentenced next month and a fine of up to $2,500.
Looking tired and dazed as he left the Arlington County Courthouse with his fiancee, his father and other members of his family who sat through the trial, Albert stopped briefly before a bank of microphones to thank his lawyers, family and supporters.
"I just felt I needed to end this ordeal for myself, my wonderful family, my fiancee, my friends and supporters,'' Albert said.
He declined to answer any questions.
The case became the latest celebrity trial, featuring the requisite high-powered lawyer, saturation media coverage, instant analysis by a new industry of legal commentators and a steady stream of sensational details.
This time, a courtroom in suburban Virginia became the stage for a tawdry drama, in which Albert's fiancee, parents and children listened as two women described being attacked and bitten in sexual encounters in hotel rooms.
The women said Albert asked them to bring along a third participant and, in one instance, he was described as wearing women's underwear.
The guilty plea was the surprise conclusion to a humiliating public ordeal for Albert, a sports-crazed grocer's son who rose to become one of the most prominent announcers in the United States.
As familiar as he was behind a microphone calling play-by-play, he became a celebrity in his own right, appearing 100 times on David Letterman's NBC and CBS late night shows.
"All I wanted to do then was all I wanted to do now -- be at every game, announce every basket, keep track of every point,'' Albert said in his 1993 book, "I'd Love to but I Have a Game: 27 Years Without a Life.''
Even with a pending lighter sentence, Albert, 56, faces a dim future as a sportscaster.
NBC, which allowed him to continue working after he was charged by a grand jury in May, said in a statement that Albert "asserted his innocence and assured NBC's senior management that there was no basis whatsoever to the charges,'' adding, "Today, given Mr. Albert's plea of guilty to assault and battery, NBC terminates its relationship with Marv Albert.''
The woman with whom Albert was involved complained that he bit her back and forced her to perform oral sex in a hotel room after he had broadcast a Knicks game on Feb. 12 in Landover.
As the chief witness against him, the woman testified Tuesday how sex had played a major role in their 10-year friendship, but Albert grew angry with her that night because she did not bring along another man to join them, as he had requested.
On cross-examination, Albert's lawyer, Roy Black, who in 1991 won an acquittal for William Kennedy Smith in a Florida rape case, had only limited success trying to portray the woman as a liar who had actually enjoyed the sexual activities she claimed she later found objectionable.
But Wednesday, prosecutors appeared to surprise Black by calling another woman to the stand, a former friend of Albert's who told the 12-member jury that he had bitten her twice, in 1993 and 1994, and in the second instance, while wearing women's undergarments, had tried to force her to perform oral sex.
The prosecutors had been expected to end their case Thursday, and Black had intended to open Albert's defense by introducing evidence to bring at least the first woman's credibility into question.
But Black said after the deal was announced that Judge Benjamin Kendrick blocked most attempts by the defense to challenge the woman's credibility through cross-examination and the introduction of evidence through other witnesses. As a result, Black said he was persuaded to recommend that his client accept the prosecutors' offer.
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