NEW YORK -- A handwriting expert testified yesterday that a boxer's signature on two copies of a contract with promoter Don King were identical, supporting a government theory that King faked a contract to collect insurance.
The testimony came as prosecutors in federal court in Manhattan considered whether to rest after a month of testimony meant to prove King collected $350,000 illegally from Lloyd's of London. The trial will resume tomorrow.
King is charged with nine counts of mail fraud in an indictment that alleged he faked a contract with Julio Cesar Chavez in 1991 so he could collect training fees that he had never paid to the boxer. If convicted, King could face up to five years in prison on each count.
The bout between Chavez and Harold Brazier was canceled after Chavez cut his nose.
Yesterday, handwriting expert Gus Lesnevich testified that the signature of Chavez on one copy of the fight contract was identical to that on a copy that prosecutors allege King faked.
"A person never signs their name exactly the same more than once," he said. "Actually, if a person sat down and wrote their name five times in a row on a sheet of paper, each one would have a little variation from the one above it."
"We are not machines. We cannot reproduce things exactly the same way," he said.