Team Pacquiao’s legal sagas provide fodder for tabloids

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Manny Pacquiao‘s trainer Freddie Roach was surprised The Times didn’t more closely monitor the civil trial he endured this year.

‘You didn’t see that on TMX?’ he asked.

‘You mean TMZ, Freddie,’ an employee at Roach’s Wild Card Gym in Hollywood corrected.

Roach was referring to a civil suit that spawned from his Oct. 20, 2008, decision to eject a man, Gregorio Asuncion, from Wild Card. A jury was summoned, Asuncion’s wife joined the suit, and Roach was forced to spend the early part of January in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom.

‘I put my hands on his shoulders and told him it was time to leave,’ Roach said, recounting the incident. ‘There was no contact. I pointed him to the exit.’

A Wild Card employee said Asuncion was upset at being ousted, and the employee said he watched the man walk to the corner liquor store inside the same strip mall with Wild Card on Vine Street, call 911 and then lie down on the street when he heard the sirens coming.

‘The guy sued me,’ Roach said. ‘Then his wife sued me because she said they couldn’t have sex anymore. Unbelievable.’

I called Roach’s agent, Nick Khan, for more details. Khan sat through the trial, hopeful his client wouldn’t get dinged for damages that threatened to exceed $1 million.

‘Freddie’s telling the truth about the sex,’ Khan explained. ‘Asuncion’s wife [Allyson] sought damages for loss of consortium, which basically means a loss of companionship, affection and sexual gratification one receives from a spouse. At one point, in the defense’s closing arguments, the jury was told it was just wrong to consider this loss of consortium calculation at $10 hour an hour for eight hours a day. The attorney said, ‘None of us are that crazy. None of us are having sex eight hours a day.’ ‘

Roach said he knew things were going his way when Asuncion cracked one time on the stand and admitted, ‘Maybe it’s my fault,’ to which Roach said the plaintiff’s attorney barked, ‘He battered you!’

The jury sided with Roach, dismissing every claim by the Asuncions in a Jan. 15 verdict.

‘That guy’s now banned from the Philippine community,’ Roach said straight-faced, and if you know how popular Roach is among Filipinos because of his tight connection with Pacquiao (who calls him ‘Master’) you understand this may be a very true statement.

Roach said he chatted with some of the jurors afterward, telling them to ‘call me if they ever want tickets to a Manny Pacquiao fight.’

Meanwhile, in the Philippines, a government official who often accompanies Pacquiao on the dais at news conferences, Chavit Singson, was subjected to criticism in the country for an alleged incident last September in which Singson confronted his live-in partner and her friend.

Roach said Singson used a pipe to assault his partner’s friend.

Attempts to reach Singson this week have been unsuccessful. He hasn’t been seen around Pacquiao’s entourage thus far.

Pacquiao promoter Bob Arum previously got laughs when he stumbled to pronounce Singson’s name, and ultimately resigned himself to announce, ‘Governor what’s-his-name ... whatever.’ Arum apologized later, declaring Singson a national hero who helped expose a major corruption scandal in the country.

‘He’s been through assassination attempts and keeps tigers in his backyard,’ Roach said. ‘He tells the story how he was almost killed when someone rolled two live hand grenades onto a dance floor, how he was dancing with a girl, moved in to hold her tight when the explosion hit and said he was the only one who lived.’

Representatives of Pacquiao’s American contingent said the boxer is extremely loyal to friends such as Singson, who allows Pacquiao to use his private aircraft and formed a vitamin company with him.

‘Manny’s not going to deny a friendship because of one of the governor’s actions,’ Pacquiao’s U.S. business advisor Michael Koncz said. ‘If you’re a friend of Manny, you’re his friend. Manny won’t disown you because of one slip. We don’t advocate that, though.’

Roach said cultural differences are at play.

‘If Michael Jordan was hanging around a guy like this, I’m sure it wouldn’t be accepted,’ Roach said.

-- Lance Pugmire