Fan Pleads No Contest to Biting Referee

A Los Angeles man pleaded no contest Thursday to biting off part of a referee’s ear after a soccer game at Balboa Park.

Encarnacion Celestino Cifuentes, 39, was charged with mayhem in the July 17, 1988, biting of Santos Gonzales, 41, of Hollywood.

Mayhem is defined by the state penal code as the malicious disfigurement or dismemberment of another person.

It carries a maximum sentence of six years in prison, but in exchange for Cifuentes’ no-contest plea, prosecutors agreed to seek no more than four years.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Lloyd M. Nash said he will probably seek a prison term for Cifuentes but would not be more specific. Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Alan B. Haber scheduled sentencing for Jan. 26.

Cifuentes’ attorney, Deputy Public Defender Daniel Alan Kuperberg, told Haber that his client is innocent but did not want to risk a more severe sentence if he were to be convicted at a trial.

During the game between players of Salvadoran descent and players of Guatemalan descent, Cifuentes, a spectator, disputed a call Gonzales had made against the Guatemalan team, Nash said.

After the match, Cifuentes grabbed Gonzales from behind and bit off about half an inch of his ear, Nash said.

A no-contest plea is treated the same as a guilty plea by California criminal courts.