Lenny Dykstra Was Indicted Again
Art imitates life, and vice versa. I wouldn’t presume to call the words I scribble on these electronic pages “art” — and yet they, too, seem to imitate life. You see, way back in February, back before 26 of baseball’s 30 teams had been eliminated and hope still sprang eternal, I wrote about former Mets and Phillies outfielder Lenny Dykstra and his fantastic claims of extorting umpires. Dykstra, it should be noted, took a surprising amount of pleasure in what was, if true, undoubtedly an illegal exercise.
Now, on the topic of the former illegal exercise, one finds the following recent reprot:
Former #MLB star Lenny Dykstra facing 10 years in prison after being indicted on cocaine, meth and terroristic threat charges https://t.co/ZMTllITryJ via @usatoday
— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) October 11, 2018
To be fair, this isn’t Dykstra’s first run-in with the criminal justice system.
Since retiring from baseball, Dykstra has served prison time for bankruptcy fraud, grand theft auto and money laundering, and he declared bankruptcy in 2009, claiming he owed more than $31 million and had only $50,000 in assets.
Cocaine and methamphetamine charges don’t represent new territory for an ex-ballplayer: Esteban Loaiza pled guilty to the same this past August. A so-called “terroristic threat” would appear to be something altogether different, though.
Under Section 2706(a) of Title 18 of the Pennsylvania State Code, the crime of “terroristic threats” is defined thusly:
A person commits the crime of terroristic threats if the person communicates, either directly or indirectly, a threat to:
(1) commit any crime of violence with intent to terrorize another;
(2) cause evacuation of a building, place of assembly or facility of public transportation; or
(3) otherwise cause serious public inconvenience, or cause terror or serious public inconvenience with reckless disregard of the risk of causing such terror or inconvenience.
Despite its ominous-sounding name, a charge of terroristic threats is generally a misdemeanor. So what did Dykstra do to merit this charge? USA Today’s Suzanne Russell tells us:
On May 23, 2018, Dykstra, 55, of Linden, was arrested by Linden police in connection with allegedly threatening an Uber driver…. The Uber driver… told police he had picked up Dykstra in Linden for a scheduled fare before Dykstra apparently tried to change the destination. The driver refused to make the destination change. Dykstra allegedly put a weapon to the driver’s head and threatened to kill him, according to police. No weapon was found in Dykstra’s possession. Both Dykstra and the Uber driver, Brian Lutty, 47, allege the other made him fear for his life.
If this is true, Dykstra is actually fortunate to only be charged with making terroristic threats and not something more serious. After all, Dykstra is a convicted felon, and Pennsylvania restricts the rights of felons to own firearms.
Fortunately for Dykstra, he was offered a sweetheart plea deal. Unfortunately for Dykstra, he decided to reject that sweetheart plea deal.
In August, Dykstra, through his attorney Michael Brucki, rejected a non-custodial probation plea offer on the terroristic threats charge. Brucki said Dykstra was maintaining his innocence.
But the judge also alerted Brucki and Dykstra to the Union County Prosecutor’s Office escalating plea policy in which once Dykstra rejects the plea, it is off the table and will not be offered again.
In other words, the state of Pennsylvania offered Dykstra probation and no jail time for holding a gun to someone’s head, and Dykstra said no. (I’ll let you decide for yourselves about the wisdom of that decision.) As for his reasoning, Dykstra insists that he was the victim and that Lutty kidnapped him.
Dykstra claimed the driver threatened and tried to kidnap him early on the morning of May 23 after Dykstra asked to change the trip’s destination. At a news conference a few weeks after the incident, Dykstra said the driver locked the car’s doors and sped up, and that he was “literally in fear of my life.”
Dykstra’s approach has other consequences, as well. Section 2706(c) contains a private right of action, which is basically just a fancy legalese way of saying that Lutty can sue Dykstra in addition to any criminal sanctions. Dykstra might not be worried about that, though. As he told the New Yorker in August,
“You couldn’t get six fiction writers to write a better novel than this, could you?… Everything with me is, like, I’m either flying private jets or I’m in the cooler! What other person gets kidnapped by an Uber driver?”
Dykstra’s first court hearing is set for October 22, 2018.
Sheryl Ring is a litigation attorney and General Counsel at Open Communities, a non-profit legal aid agency in the Chicago suburbs. You can reach her on twitter at @Ring_Sheryl. The opinions expressed here are solely the author's. This post is intended for informational purposes only and is not intended as legal advice.
Sometimes I wish there were a Baseball Hall of Weirdness. In my imaginary version of it Lenny was inducted some time ago but he’s now the subject of a growing wing of sideshow amusements. You can’t miss it, it’s right next to the Carl Everett Museum of Paleontology.
#KeepNotGraphs
Wait, this is real?
You know, it is possible that Dykstra’s story is true and THAT is why he refuses to plead guilty…
I know, Dykstra doesn’t have much credibility, and there may be evidence that we are not aware of that make Dykstra’s story less suspect. But prosecutors can make mistakes in their zeal to secure convictions.
Explain the logic of an uber driver, on then clock and being tracked, kidnapping a meth head. Let’s start with motive.
And he’d probably be the first kidnapper in history to intentionally take his kidnapee to the police station.
If the coke and meth were for personal use, Lenny’s credibility is even worse.
“Heyy, I’m Leddy Dykshtruh, thish maaaan wuhs skidnappee me!”
Sheryl’s article did not say where the pair were arrested. Nor is there any assertion that he was using during the incident; it could have just been possession.
There’s video on YouTube of the arrest. It took place in the garage of a police station.
You sound like you have a good head on your shoulders, so I’ll let you in on a little secret. I know a guy, used to play baseball, now he’s a genius investor. If you put up some cash….
Dykstra’s narrative and Lutty’s are quite consistent if you adjust for the well-established fact that Lenny Dykstra is able to feel victimized by literally anything. In his mind, insisting on taking him to the destination he had committed to when booking the car is “kidnapping,” which probably makes him justified in using a (pretend?) gun to get the driver to stop.
(Whether an Uber driver has an obligation to release a passenger who no longer wants to go to the original destination is an interesting question, though.)
I agree Jonnie T.
This is terrible piece of work by Sheryl, who usually does a fine job. To wit, at least three major errors and I believe a fourth:
(1) “Under Section 2706(a) of Title 18 of the Pennsylvania State Code, the crime of “terroristic threats” is defined thusly:…” The alleged terroristic threats occurred in Linden…which is in the State of New Jersey, so Pennsylvania’s definition of terroristic threats is irrelevant.
(2) “In other words, the state of Pennsylvania offered Dykstra probation and no jail time for holding a gun to someone’s head, and Dykstra said no. (I’ll let you decide for yourselves about the wisdom of that decision.)”…In addition to again getting the State where the crime occurred wrong, as Johnnie T says, why would Dykstra plead guilty to making terroristic threats if his version of the story is true? It is one thing to to plea down to a lesser crime when you have admittedly performed a more serious infraction – the court system avoids the cost of a trial and the defendant accepts a lesser penalty. But again, if you believe Dykstra’s version of the story and were in fact Dykstra (and therefore did nothing wrong) would you plead guilty to making terroristic threats?
(3) Again, the sentence of “In other words, the state of Pennsylvania offered Dykstra probation and no jail time for holding a gun to someone’s head, and Dykstra said no.” Where is the word “allegedly” before the word “holding”? This should clearly say: “..the state of New Jersey offered Dykstra probation and no jail time for allegedly holding a gun to someone’s head….”
(4) “Cocaine and methamphetamine charges don’t represent new territory for an ex-ballplayer: Esteban Loaiza pled guilty to the same this past August.” At best this is a lazy analogy, but I think it’s actually outright false. Loaiza pled guilty to trafficking 44 pounds of cocaine in August – I could find no mention of meth in his plea? So I think this sentence is simply untrue that Loaiza pled guilty to “cocaine and methamphetamine charges” in August. Even if it is true that he pled guilty to meth trafficking in addition to cocaine trafficking (again, I didn’t see that) the situations of Loaiza, a guy involved in at least a 44 pound coke deal (i.e., narcotics distribution) and Dykstra, an individual arrested with a personal amount of cocaine and meth on him (i.e., narcotics use), aren’t exactly similar and consequently describing the allegations against Dykstra and then saying “..Loaiza pled guilty to the same this past August” is at best a poor choice of words.
You’ve historically done a very good job Sheryl…this article was awful.
Of note 18 USC § 922(g)(1) also prohibits possession of a firearm by felons and can come with a 10 year prison sentence. Furthermore, based on the publicly available facts acquittal at trial seems rather likely. This is especially true when the key(only) witness has alleged Dykstra threatened him with a weapon, which failed to materialized despite the fact that the Uber driver drove directly to a police station.
One should also consider the Union County Prosecutor’s Office escalating plea policy. These types of policies are of questionable public utility at best and at worst are deplorable attempts to strong arm Defendants into taking plea deals early in the criminal process, often before mandatory discovery disclosures are made by the prosecution. These policies often result in innocent defendants agreeing to plea deals rather than risk a trial.
The sum of my prior points is that the Prosecutor likely has a weak case and knows it.
Sheryl, if Dykstra ends up convicted on this charge I will ship you a Bourbon County Brand Stout or similarly priced beverage of your choosing.
There’s another problem with the article:
“Linden is a city in southeastern Union County, New Jersey, United States. It is part of the New York Metropolitan Area, located about 13 miles southwest of Manhattan and bordering Staten Island”
Pennsylvania laws have no application.
Fuck all prosecutors, I hope Dykstra beats the case
“In other words, the state of Pennsylvania offered Dykstra probation and no jail time for holding a gun to someone’s head, and Dykstra said no.”
Beyond the normal journalistic practice of using the term “allegedly”, it’s a poor summary of this situation to write that we have good reason to conclude that Dykstra “[held] a gun to someone’s head.” I’m no fan of Dykstra’s, and my view of his character is low enough that it wouldn’t at all shock me if Dykstra did hold a gun to someone’s head.
In the reported facts of this incident, however, there’s very good reason to think that he didn’t have a gun. The reporting over time on this case goes beyond just a simple summary that the police never found a weapon in Dykstra’s possession. The NY Post has also reported that, when this incident occurred, the Uber driver drove straight to a police station with Dykstra in the car. So, whatever Dykstra’s other problematic/illegal behavior – he may well have threatened the driver and tried to make the driver think that Dykstra had a gun – it’s really tough to come to the conclusion that Dykstra actually had a gun.
Here is a link to said reporting – https://nypost.com/2018/06/06/lenny-dykstra-allegedly-told-uber-driver-hed-blow-his-f-king-head-off/
Dykstra has a serious problem – not just the latest allegations against him, but look at his history. I hope the court orders a psychiatric evaluation… Dykstra seems like a textbook case of Antisocial Personality Disorder.
As a sports hero, he will get away with a lot more than I would. But he is a remorseless, ego-driven predator, and it is only a matter of time before he self destructs and hurts himself and/or others. He is going to hurt people, and he will wind up as a (very avoidable) tragedy.
Today’s the day Lenny Dykstra became Presidential
Lenny’s book is… disturbing
Lenny is…disturbing
There’s actually video of the arrest (via body cam cameras) if you look on YouTube for “Lenny Dykstra arrest video”. There are two videos, the first one where they’re talking to Dykstra, the other where they’re talking to the Uber driver. The odd thing is they’re having a decent conversation with Dykstra when they arrest him out of nowhere. He is clearly confused and asks why he’s being arrested. They tell him they’ll explain everything in a minute. But there’s no video of that…
But why wouldn’t the driver change the destination!?
This case has some parallels to multiple accounts of female passengers who were kidnapped by Uber drivers. I am simple observing, but not passing judgement, that the majority of commentators here seem unwilling to believe Lenny or give him the benefit of the doubt. Is that because he’s male, or because of his checkered history?
Yeah, I don’t believe Nails because he’s a dood. Right.
It’s because of his history. Duh.