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Former ROH star and AEW Producer Benjamin "BJ" Whitmer was sentenced yesterday to 120 days of home incarceration (aka house arrest) by Kentucky's Boone County Criminal Court in relation to his June 2023 arrest for strangulation, 1st degree, a Class C felony in Kentucky, carries a potential penalty of 5 to 10 years in prison. Whitmer has also been charged with burglary, second degree. In Kentucky, that charge is described as knowingly entering or remaining in a dwelling with the intent to commit a crime.
Court records indicate that Whitmer will have to complete a Batterer’s Intervention Program and that he willl be subject to an Interpersonal Protective Order “IPO” for the longest allowable time under the law.
Whitmer will be under probation for five years.
Court records indicate that the two sides agreed to a Alford plea deal, which is when a defendant in a criminal case maintains their innocence while offering to plead guilty to a charge. The defendant admits that there is enough evidence to convict them, but does not admit to the crime. So Whitmer took the plea, but maintained he was innocent.
AEW sources at the time of Whitmer's arrest indicated that the promotion had reached out to the victim to provide whatever personal support they could in the wake of Whitmer's arrest.
Whitmer had been with AEW as a Coach/Producer since it was originally formed and would occasionally appear as a Judge for ROH Pure Wrestling matches. Prior to AEW, he had been with Ring of Honor off and on dating back to 2003, initially as a wrestler. Later, he transitioned into working behind the scenes full-time during the Sinclair Broadcast Group ownership era, working on travel and production aspects of the company. Whitmer also worked as a trainer for the ROH Dojo and on-screen at times as a color commentator for the promotion during the Sinclair era. He exited ROH in advance of moving to AEW.
Whitmer first broke into professional wrestling back in 2000 in the greater Cincinnati area. Beyond his time in ROH, he also wrestled for Pro Wrestling NOAH in Japan, former WWE developmental territory the HWA, CZW and scores of other independent promotions. He had stepped out of the ring due to neck and back issues related to spinal stenosis, last wrestling in 2017.
As long as Whitmer completes his home incarceration and abides by the terms of his probation, legally, the matter would be resolved. To date, he has not commented publicly on the arrest.
Whitmer, to date, has not publicly commented on the charges.
PWInsider.com is working on additional details.
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