Guilty of beating at Phillies game, National Guardsman opts for tour in Iraq

At his sentencing hearing yesterday, Michael Redrow learned that he's headed somewhere far more dangerous than prison.

The 22-year-old resident of Mantua, Gloucester County, will be going to the Middle East for at least a year - and it's exactly what he and his attorney wanted.

Redrow, a member of New Jersey's National Guard, was convicted last month, along with another Mantua man, of simple assault and criminal conspiracy stemming from a brawl at a Phillies game last year.

Philadelphia Common Pleas Judge Lillian Ransom granted Redrow's request yesterday to be sentenced to at least a year of nonreporting probation, which will allow him to be deployed in just a few weeks.

"That is more punishment than any probation or any period of incarceration," attorney Vincent Campo said in court yesterday. "He'll be told what to do, when to do it and why, by the U.S. Army."

Before a Phillies game on Aug. 10, 2007, Redrow approached Rich Riskie Jr., also of Mantua, and a girlfriend in a parking lot near Citizens Bank Park.

Redrow asked Riskie for a beer. When he wouldn't give one up, words were exchanged and things got physical, Campo said.

Riskie was left with a fractured skull and spent several days in a coma, but Campo said his client was guilty only of giving Riskie a split lip.

"The court found that Mister Redrow was not the cause of those serious injuries," Campo said in court yesterday.

Another defendant, Frank J. Landolfi, of Mantua, was sentenced Monday to four years' probation and community service. A third defendant was acquitted; charges against a fourth defendant were dropped.

Riskie did not attend the sentencing.

Standing before Ransom yesterday, Redrow's voice wavered as he spoke.

"I just truly want to apologize," he said, as his parents and grandmother sat in the audience. "Going to Iraq would be the best."

Assistant District Attorney Randy Hsia said he was going to seek a three-to-six-month jail sentence for Redrow before Campo approached him about a possible deployment to the Middle East.

"This was a very serious case with some very serious injuries," he said.

Hsia, a former Marine, said he thinks some good can come of Redrow's deployment.

"Military service will be a very eye-opening experience for him," Hsia said. "It will make him take responsibilities for his actions, as well as take care of others."

Redrow most likely will meet up with his unit at Fort Benning, Ga., before moving on to Kuwait and eventually Baghdad, his family said.

When Redrow returns, he'll have at least two years of probation. He told the court yesterday that he would like to enlist in the Army after his deployment.

Yesterday's sentence was a relief for Redrow's family, but it will be short-lived.

"It's one issue to another," said his mother, Kim McKinney.

Redrow's unit, based at Fort Dix in Burlington County, will be part of New Jersey's largest National Guard deployment since World War II.