Former baseball player Lenny Dykstra faces drug charges after New Year’s Day traffic stop
Retired professional baseball player Lenny Dykstra faces charges after Pennsylvania State Police say 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 would be laid but did not specify what they might be or what drugs were allegedly involved.
Dykstra’s lawyer, Matthew Blit, said in a statement that the vehicle did not belong to Dykstra and he was not accused of being under the influence of a substance at the scene.
“The charges against him will be cleared quickly,” Blit said.
Dykstra’s gritty style of play throughout his 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 problems.
Dykstra service time He was sentenced to more than six months in a California prison for bankruptcy fraud for hiding baseball gloves and other items from his playing days. This was concurrent with a three-year prison sentence for pleading no contest to auto theft and making false financial statements. He claimed he was more than $31 million in debt and had only $50,000 in assets.
In April 2012, Dykstra expressed no objection to exposing himself to women he met through Craigslist.
Dykstra pleaded guilty in 2019 to illegally renting rooms in a New Jersey home he owned on behalf of his company, Titan Equity Group. He agreed to pay a fine of approximately $3,000.
In the same year, a judge Dropped drug and terrorist threat charges against Dykstra following an altercation with an Uber driver. Police said they found cocaine, MDMA and marijuana among his belongings. Dykstra’s lawyer called the incident “exaggerated” and said he was innocent.
And in 2020, a New York Supreme Court judge dismissed a case defamation case Dykstra reportedly filed a lawsuit against former Mets teammate Ron Darling over allegations that Dykstra made racist remarks towards an opponent during the 1986 World Series.
Judge Robert D. Kalish said Dykstra’s reputation “for unsportsmanlike conduct and bigotry” was already so tarnished that he should not suffer further damage.
“According to documents filed on this motion, prior to the book’s publication, Dykstra had a reputation as a sexual predator, drug addict, thief, and embezzler, among other things, as a racist, misogynist, and anti-gay,” Kalish wrote.
