Helmet-wielding, alleged cabbie beater Aqib Talib is headed for court-mandated anger management counseling as part of a pretrial intervention program approved in Pinellas County court last week.

Talib was arrested in August after he allegedly sat in the back seat of a moving taxi and punched the cab driver while the cabbie drove in St. Petersburg to the team’s training camp hotel in Tampa. Police reports said former Buccaneer Torrie Cox and Bucs linebacker Angelo Crowell were in the cab at the time.

Richard Ripplinger, assistant State Attorney in Florida’s Sixth Judicial Circuit, told JoeBucsFan.com Monday that his office accepted Talib’s application for the state’s PTI program that has “first-time offenders go through a one-year, pre-conditioned probation.”

The judge on the case has signed off on the application, Ripplinger said.

Talib will be required to complete anger management classes in a group setting, Ripplinger said, plus meet standards in that setting and not be arrested during the one-year period in order to have charges dropped in the state’s misdemeanor battery case against him.

If Talib fails, he’ll find himself back in criminal court.

“We’d kick him out of the program and it would be set back on the docket,” Ripplinger said. “A new arrest, if it was investigated, if it was found to be legitimate, would kick him out.”

Ripplinger characterized Talib’s case progression as typical for a first-time offender.