Playboy Playmate DeCesare acquitted on charge of karate-kicking
QB’s former flame
The Associated Press
Cleveland – A Playboy Playmate accused of karate-kicking the ex-girlfriend of NFL quarterback and Gilroy native Jeff Garcia was acquitted Wednesday of a misdemeanor assault charge.
But Carmella DeCesare, who is dating the Cleveland Browns player, was convicted of violating a protection order and placed on probation for one year.
Judge Anita Laster Mays also ordered DeCesare to pay a $150 fine and serve 24 hours of community service.
According to testimony, Garcia dated 32-year-old Kristen Hine four or five times but later dropped her for DeCesare, 22.
The Playmate of the Year testified Wednesday that Garcia cheated on her with Hine. Nasty phone calls and threatening voice mails followed and culminated in a confrontation on Aug. 21, 2004 at the Tramp nightclub.
Name-calling ensued, and a friend of Hine’s dumped a drink on DeCesare. Each woman had to be restrained. Hine accused DeCesare of grabbing a dance pole and kicking her in the head.
DeCesare told the judge that she was dancing on a table when one of Hine’s friends, Jasara Deuley, started “coming at me full-force, swinging like a guy.”
She said she kicked Deuley in self-defense, but denied kicking Hine.
Garcia testified that DeCesare was defending herself and that the kick was “more like the Matrix than the Karate Kid,” despite Hine’s claims. “It’s embarrassing that I am here today, to be caught up in a situation like this,” he said.
According to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Judge Mays “characterized both sides of the case as ‘losers’ and questioned the credibility of many of the witnesses.”
The newspaper also reported Mays as saying, “It’s a shame that two women ended up fighting each other instead of confronting the one person who deserved to have been confronted.”
DeCesare’s violation of the protection order Hine had filed in August happened when both women ended up at another Cleveland night spot, the Cloud Nine Lounge on Oct. 16. DeCesare claimed she left the club as soon as she learned of Hine’s presence, but Hine testified that it was only when she called the police that the defendent left.
“Of course I’m disappointed,” DeCesare said after the sentence was handed down. “But it is what it is. Things happen in life. You take it and move on.
“My life is under the microscope and so is Jeff’s. I just don’t want to risk going out anymore.”
