PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- A 300-pound nightclub doorman was arraigned Friday on a charge he assaulted New England Patriots wide receiver Hart Lee Dykes in a brawl that put Dykes in the hospital and left teammate Irving Fryar facing a weapons charge.
William Earley, 35, was arrested shortly after 10 p.m. Thursday at a friend's home in Portsmouth and charged in the early Wednesday melee at the Club Shalimar, said Maj. Milton Wilson, chief detective for the Providence Police Department.
The 6-foot-7, 300-pound Earley limped on crutches into District Court, where he entered no plea to a felony assault charge. Judge Gilbert Indeglia ordered him held pending a hearing Monday to determine whether he violated the terms of his probation on a previous conviction.
Indeglia also granted a prosecutor's request to confiscate Earley's crutches, which the suspect allegedly used to assault Dykes. The judge directed the state to give Earley a new pair.
Police said a confrontation between Earley and Dykes, the Patriots' No. 1 draft pick in 1989, erupted early Wednesday in the nighclub on the outskirts of Providence and spilled onto South Main Street.
Maj. Milton Wilson, chief of detectives at the Providence Police Department, said the fight apparently started 'with an exchange of words and went downhill after that.'
'I guess it precipitated from the fact that the two players were slow in leaving the establishment, allegedly,' Wilson said.
There were reports that patrons may have teased the two wide receivers on their team's dismal 1-4 record, but police Capt. Bernard Gannon said witnesses had not indicated that was a factor.
A spokesman for the state attorney general's office said Earley was convicted in 1982 of robbery and sentenced to 20 years in jail, 12 of them to be served. He was granted parole in 1986, spokesman Thomas Connell said.
Earlier this year, Earley was convicted on a misdemeanor assault charge and given a one-year suspended sentence with probation, Connell said.
In addition to next week's probation hearing, an officer with the state Parole Board plans to hold a preliminary hearing on whether the doorman violated his parole on the robbery conviction, board Chairman Kenneth Walker said.
Earley faces up to 10 years in jail if convicted of assaulting Dykes, who played for Oklahoma State. Investigators were trying to determine the identities of others who allegedly attacked the wide receiver.
Dykes, 24, of Bay City, Texas, suffered an eye injury in the fracas but doctors believe it caused no lasting damage and said he could be ready to play against Miami Thursday.
Witnesses said the melee broke up when Fryar brandished a pistol. Fryar, 28, was subsequently charged with carrying a firearm in Rhode Island without a license, a felony that carries a one- to five-year prison term.
Fryar, whose career has been marred by off-field trouble, suffered a cut to the back of his head that required seven stitches to close. He said he and Dykes were attacked as they left the club and that he got his gun out of his car to protect Dykes. When he returned, Fryar said Dykes was on the ground, bleeding, and being kicked by 'some people.'
Fryar, who lives in Sharon, Mass., was taken into custody after he told police at the scene he had a pistol in his boot. He was arraigned Wednesday on the weapons charge and released on personal recognizance.
Fryar has a permit for the gun in Massachusetts, and would have been allowed to 'merely transport' it through Rhode Island, Assistant Attorney General Michael Stone said. But state law did not allow him to use the weapon as witnesses described, Stone said.
