01/02/26 07:48:00
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01/02 19:47 CST Former baseball player Lenny Dykstra faces drug charges after
New Year's Day traffic stop
Former baseball player Lenny Dykstra faces drug charges after New Year's Day
traffic stop
By MARK SCOLFORO
Associated Press
Retired professional baseball player Lenny Dykstra faces charges after
Pennsylvania State Police said a trooper found drugs and paraphernalia in his
possession during a traffic stop on New Year's Day.
Dykstra, 62, was a passenger when the vehicle was pulled over by a trooper with
the Blooming Grove patrol unit in Pike County, about 25 miles (40 kilometers)
east of Scranton, where Dykstra lives.
Police said in a statement that charges will be filed but did not specify what
they may be or what drugs were allegedly involved.
Matthew Blit, Dykstra's lawyer, said in a statement that the vehicle did not
belong to Dykstra and any charges brought against him "will be swiftly
absolved."
"Lenny was not accused of being under the influence of any substance at the
scene, nor was he arrested or taken into custody at the scene," Blit said.
Dykstra's gritty style of play over a long career with the New York Mets and
Philadelphia Phillies earned him the nickname "Nails." He spent years as a
businessman before running into a series of legal woes.
Dykstra served time in a California prison for bankruptcy fraud, sentenced to
more than six months for hiding baseball gloves and other items from his
playing days. That ran concurrent with a three-year sentence for pleading no
contest to grand theft auto and providing a false financial statement. He
claimed he owed more than $31 million and had only $50,000 in assets.
In April 2012, Dykstra pleaded no contest to exposing himself to women he met
through Craigslist.
In 2019, Dykstra pleaded guilty on behalf of his company, Titan Equity Group,
to illegally renting out rooms in a New Jersey house that it owned. He agreed
to pay about $3,000 in fines.
That same year a judge dropped drug and terroristic threat charges against
Dykstra after an altercation with an Uber driver. Police said they found
cocaine, MDMA and marijuana among his belongings. Dykstra's lawyer called that
incident "overblown" and said he was innocent.
And in 2020 a New York Supreme Court judge dismissed a defamation lawsuit that
Dykstra filed against former Mets teammate Ron Darling over his allegation that
Dykstra made racist remarks toward an opponent during the 1986 World Series.
Justice Robert D. Kalish said Dykstra's reputation "for unsportsmanlike conduct
and bigotry" had already been so tarnished that it could not be damaged further.
"Based on the papers submitted on this motion, prior to the publication of the
book, Dykstra was infamous for being, among other things, racist, misogynist,
and anti-gay, as well as a sexual predator, a drug-abuser, a thief, and an
embezzler," Kalish wrote.
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