Career
Shortly after midnight, the party was asked to leave the hotel, though there are conflicting stories as to the reason. lieutenant is also unclear whether the party left voluntarily or were forced to leave. The security staff (of which Mićević was a member) continued monitoring the behaviour of the party for a short distance outside the hotel, and there was an altercation in which Mićević physically struck Hookes.
Witnesses gave highly conflicting testimony of what occurred and who started the fight, but what is not in doubt is that Hookes fell to the ground, hitting his head in the process, and going into cardiac arrest.
He was revived by paramedics but did not regain consciousness. He was taken to Melbourne"s Alfred Hospital and placed on life support.
Hookes was taken off life support on the evening of 19 January and died shortly afterwards. Mićević was charged by Victoria Police with assault on the day of the incident.
That charge was upgraded to manslaughter after Hookes"s death.
On 12 September 2005, Mićević was acquitted on the charge of Hookes"s manslaughter. The jury had taken five days to come to its decision, after a two-week trial. An issue in the trial was conflicting statements given by witnesses.
After the trial, Mićević expressed his condolences to Hookes"s family and his regret that the incident had ever occurred.
A civil suit against Mićević and the Beaconsfield Hotel"s owners by Hookes"s wife Robyn was withdrawn on 20 February 2007. After the Hookes trial, boxing promoters began pressuring Mićević to fight professionally as soon as two weeks after the verdict was handed down, but it took Mićević 18 months after the verdict to agree to make his professional boxing debut.
Mićević began his professional boxing career with a unanimous points decision in a six-round "main event" bout against Wes Ryder in a Light Heavyweight bout at the Darebin Community Sports Stadium in Reservoir, Melbourne, on 13 April 2007. Mićević later claimed the vacant Australian Light Heavyweight in a bout with Joel Casey on 14 November 2008 in a ten-round unanimous points decision in Coburg.