Former NBA player arrested in kidnapping

0 Comments | Oakland Tribune, Jan 28, 2006 | by Nancy Isles Nation

Former basketball star Isaiah "J.R." Rider appeared in court Friday on kidnapping charges but did not enter a plea because he had no lawyer.

Rider of Alameda was arrested early Thursday morning in Marin City after a former girlfriend reported he had taken her against her will in his Mercedes Benz.

He was charged with one felony count of kidnapping, one felony count of false imprisonment and misdemeanor counts of battery, reckless driving and resisting arrest. He is being held in Marin County jail on $2 million bail.

Rider, 34, was arrested in Alameda in November on an outstanding domestic violence warrant after attracting attention at a local bank.

The former NBA player created a scene when bank employees refused to cash a check because of a hold on his account. They called police and Rider was arrested after a short foot chase when officers discovered he was wanted in Marin on a misdemeanor charge of domestic violence.

Rider told Marin County Superior Court Judge Verna Adams on Friday he had called his lawyers but no one showed up.

He mentioned one of his attorneys, Garrick Lew of San Francisco, but court records show Lew withdrew from a prior case because of "irreconcilable attorney-client conflict."

Lew stated in one letter to the court that he and Rider were not on speaking terms.

David I. Brown, Marin Count's chief deputy public defender, offered to consult with Rider but the suspect refused, saying he would be represented by a private attorney.

Adams ordered Rider to return to court Monday with his lawyer.

On Thursday, Rider's former girlfriend told sheriff's deputies she met with him about 8 o'clock the night before on Terrace Drive. She claimed Rider asked her to get into his car and talk to him.

She entered the car but left the door open, police said. Rider drove off, and she fell toward the back seat as the car accelerated.

The former Encinal High basketball player has arrests dating as far back as 1993.

-- the year he was drafted in the first round by the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Rider took his legal troubles with him to Minneapolis, where he was convicted in 1994 of kicking a female sports bar manager.

After a nearly decade-long NBA career playing for the Portland Trail Blazers, the Atlanta Hawks and the Los Angeles Lakers, Rider played his last season in 2002 with the Denver Nuggets.

He was arrested again in Marin in November 2004 on a misdemeanor charge of domestic violence against a woman he was dating. He was convicted but did not show up for several subsequent court dates,

prompting Marin Superior Court Commissioner Randolph Heubach to issue the $100,000 warrant Alameda police picked him up for in November.