Former Olympic Boxer Gets 32 Months in Credit Card Fraud

A onetime street thug who boxed his way from a juvenile detention center to a gold medal in the 1984 Olympics was sentenced Tuesday to 32 months in prison for credit card fraud.

Henry Tillman, 34, of Diamond Bar was wearing a jacket with his last name stenciled across the back when he was videotaped in 1994 using a Discover card with another name on it at Hollywood Park Casino in Inglewood.

He appeared in Torrance Superior Court Tuesday to ask Judge William Hollingsworth Jr. if he could reconsider the guilty plea he entered last year. Charges that he used a falsified driver’s license and a “cloned” cellular phone were dropped under that plea agreement.

Hollingsworth denied the motion and ordered Tillman taken into custody immediately.

As a youngster, Tillman had a series of brushes with the law, culminating in a 1982 conviction for armed robbery. While serving his sentence in a California Youth Authority facility in Chino, he took up boxing and in just over two years was an Olympic gold medalist.

Although the minimum sentence for the fraud charge is 16 months, California’s new stricter sentencing guidelines double that time for anyone with a prior felony conviction. Tillman must serve at least 80% of the 32-month sentence.