MONTREAL - Hockey legend Guy Lafleur was arrested Thursday afternoon, ducking into a police station a day earlier than previously planned to answer a charge of giving contradictory evidence in his son Mark Lafleur's court case.
Lafleur, 56, surrendered to Montreal police at about 3:30 p.m.
He was released without conditions and is to appear at the Montreal courthouse on February 7, his lawyer, Jean-Pierre Rancourt said.
Guy called me about noon and asked if we could arrange to do this sooner because all the media was talking about is that there is an arrest warrant for Guy Lafleur."
The former right-winger for the Habs was not fingerprinted, and his mug shot was not taken, Rancourt said.
"I asked them not to because my client (Guy Lafleur) will be travelling to the United States and I didn't want that to compromise his career."
Lafleur, a five-time Stanley Cup champion, may yet be fingerprinted and photographed, however. The procedure is standard when criminal charges are brought; but it is not always carried out upon arrest.
Rancourt maintained Lafleur is not guilty of the charge. And he said the fact they let Lafleur go without conditions proves they could have simply mailed Lafleur a summons, avoiding a media frenzy since the arrest warrant was issued Wednesday.
Providing contradictory evidence carries a maximum penalty of 14 years in prison.
The warrant stated Lafleur testified in September that his son came back to the family's Montreal-area home every night in August while the younger Lafleur was under a court-ordered 12:30 a.m. curfew.
But in testimony he gave in October, Lafleur said his son actually spent two nights at a hotel.
Mark Lafleur, 23, was first arrested last January. He faces 22 charges that include uttering death threats and sexual assault of a 17-year-old.
Mark Lafleur is also accused of kidnapping, forcible confinement, mischief, theft, possession of crack cocaine, ecstasy and marijuana, threatening to kill a Montreal bus driver, dangerous driving causing bodily harm and damaging a bus.
His preliminary hearing is set for March.
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