Wrestling great Jack Cuvo charged with forcing minor to drink vodka

Cuvo, 48, of Edgewood Avenue in Palmer Township is charged with endangering the welfare of a child, corruption of minors, furnishing liquor to a minor and public drunkenness.

Court records do not indicate the relationship between Cuvo and the boy, the boy's age or why he was with Cuvo, a former state and national champion wrestler, after midnight Thursday.

According to court records:

Nazareth police said Cuvo flagged down Officer Daniel Troxell at 12:42 a.m. outside the hotel on the 200 block of South Main Street. Troxell wrote in court records that Cuvo had an "unsteady gait, bloodshot glassy eyes, and slurred speech and a very angry demeanor."

Cuvo was angry, Troxell said, because the bartender had taken his keys from him.

A bartender told police Cuvo had entered the bar drunk Thursday evening and was drinking for about an hour and a half when a boy came into the bar and said he was afraid to leave without Cuvo. Police contacted the boy's parents, who picked him up and drove him to the police station.

The boy told police that Cuvo had forced him to drink vodka with him while they were at Cuvo's home, according to court records. Cuvo then drove to the bar while continuing to drink vodka, the boy told officers. Cuvo allegedly made him wait in the car while Cuvo went in to continue drinking.

There is no indication of Cuvo's blood-alcohol content or the results of a breath test in court records.

Cuvo was arraigned after 4 a.m. by District Judge Douglas Schlegel in Wind Gap and sent to Northampton County Prison. He was later released on $20,000 bail

In court records, Cuvo lists his occupation as self-employed. He runs a wrestling training business, Jack Cuvo Wrestling. Cuvo was a state champion wrestler at Easton High School, and a Division I NCAA champion at East Stroudsburg University in 1988 and 1989.

In 2005, he received a $2.5 million settlement from Easton police after he was allegedly beaten following a traffic stop in the city. Police charged him with assaulting the officers, but he was later acquitted of those charges.

In the years since, he has not stayed out of the headlines. In 2009, he was the subject of a brief manhunt after relatives found a suicide note in his home. In 2010, he pleaded guilty to theft after breaking into his estranged wife's home in Wilson to "get his dog."

He is in the accelerated rehabilitative disposition program in Northampton County following a 2014 drunken-driving arrest in Palmer. And he is awaiting trial on charges stemming from a crash in March in Derry Township, Dauphin County.

When reached by phone Friday, members of Cuvo's family declined to comment.