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Ex-Wrestler's Home Raided

Investigators Not Saying Much About Case

Posted: 12:05 pm EDT August 23, 2005Updated: 5:03 pm EDT August 23, 2005

Law enforcement authorities on Tuesday raided the Bartow County home of Hardbody Harrison, who had a run-in with the law last year over allegations that he forced women into prostitution.

Officers from federal and local law enforcement agencies executed a search warrant around 8 a.m. Tuesday on two homes located on Amber Ridge Drive in Cartersville and owned by Harrison, 39.

No charges have been filed against the man, whose real name is Norris Harrison Jr. According to reports, he was home during the search.

According to the search warrant, the reasons for the search were listed as involuntary servitude and human trafficking. Law enforcement authorities declined to comment on the case, but neighbors said the officers were removing boxes of evidence for much of the morning.

Norris, who wrestled with the now-defunct World Championship Wrestling under the name of Hardbody Harrison from 1994 to 1999, recently purchased a home next to his current residence, raising alarms among some neighbors.

"He said that he had eight ladies living with him and that they were all sharing one house," resident Terry Heath said. "We thought maybe something along the lines of prostitution" was happening.

Last August, Harrison was arrested in Cobb County, where he was charged with three counts of false imprisonment.

At the time, Smyrna police accused the man of befriending women by getting them out of jail and giving them a place to stay. Then he forced them into prostitution to repay the debt, officials said.

Cobb police made the arrest after three women said Harrison had been holding them against their will for 11 days to three months.

Harrison has been free on bond since his arrest last year on those charges, which have been transferred over to federal court in Atlanta, according to a report in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Those charges are still pending and Harrison has not yet faced them in court.

In 2000, after leaving WCW, Harrison joined about 20 other wrestlers in a lawsuit against the company and its parent, Turner Sports.

The lawsuit alleged racial discrimination, saying WCW cast non-white wrestlers in unflattering stereotypical roles. The lawsuit was later dismissed

Channel 2 Action News reporter Tiffani Reynolds contributed to this report.

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