On April 23, 2006, Manning attacked a man, Soroush Sabzi
[7], in a
Denny's restaurant after teasing him for working on a laptop computer.
[8] He was charged with assault with a deadly weapon after allegedly fighting a man and eventually pled no contest to felony assault. Manning faced up to four years in prison because of a previous assault charge in 2002, for which he received probation.
According to the police report, Manning and former UCLA teammates,
Tyler Ebell and
Maurice Jones-Drew bullied a student sitting at another table. Manning confronted the student with "Are you a ******?", "You f---ing Jew," and then called him "an ugly f---ing Jew" and a "******." The student asked to be left alone and the football players beat him unconscious.
[9]
Two days before the incident the Bears had signed Manning to an offer sheet. In light of the assault charges, the Panthers declined to match Chicago's offer and so Manning signed a $21 million deal with the Bears two days later. In September 2006, Manning pled no contest to felony assault in exchange for another probation deal. Later, Manning proclaimed his innocence. He acknowledged having words with the victim then pushing him in the head—but after that, according to him, his former UCLA teammates did the damage. "Yeah, I did it" explained Manning (AP report). "If I don't plea to this I have to go through trial. We're in season now. Then I'd have to put it in the hands of a jury. There are tons of things that can happen with a jury... I just can't risk that."
Manning's previous 2002 assault charge resulted from a fight between Manning and bodybuilders Brian Herbert and Seth Spiker outside a Westwood bar. Originally charged with two counts of felony assault, Manning pled innocent to one count after the other was dropped.
.
