Former Mets superstar Lenny Dykstra is facing drug charges following a traffic stop in Pennsylvania on New Year’s Day, state police said.
Dykstra, a member of the Mets’ 1986 World Series-winning team, was in the passenger seat seat of a 2015 GMC Sierra pickup truck when it was pulled over for “motor vehicle code violations” in Pike County near Scranton, where the 62-year-old lives.
Upon further investigation, authorities discovered Dykstra was “in possession of narcotics and narcotic-related equipment/paraphernalia,” according to a police report reviewed by the Daily News. The retired baseballer was listed as the “arrestee” in the report, while the driver of the truck was not identified.
Police said that charges would be filed but did not specify what they could be, nor what drugs were allegedly involved.
Dykstra’s lawyer, Matthew Blit, denied the allegations and said in a statement that he believes his client will be “swiftly absolved” in the case.
“Lenny Dykstra was merely a passenger in a vehicle that did not belong to him,” Blit said. “Undeniably, the actual driver and owner was taken into custody at the scene under the suspicion of driving under the influence. 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.”
Dykstra has had his fair share of run-ins with the law. In April 2012, he pleaded no contest to exposing himself to women he met through Craigslist.
He also served time in a California prison for bankruptcy fraud and money laundering after pleading guilty to hiding baseball gloves and other memorabilia from his time in the MLB, which were supposed to be a part of his bankruptcy filing.
That six-month sentence ran concurrent with a three-year sentence for pleading no contest to grand theft auto and providing a false financial statement. He claimed that he owed more than $31 million and had only $50,000 in assets, despite having hid or sold at least $200,000 worth of items after filing for Chapter 11 in 2009.
Six years after Dykstra was released in prison in 2013, he pleaded guilty on behalf of his company, Titan Equity Group, to illegally renting out rooms in a New Jersey home it owned, agreeing to pay about $3,000 in fines.
That same year, a judge dropped drug and terroristic threat charges against Dykstra stemming from an incident with an Uber driver in Linden, N.J. Police said they found cocaine, MDMA and marijuana among his belongings, while the driver claimed Dykstra held a gun to his head, though no weapon was found.
Prior to his legal woes, Dykstra spent 12 years in the MLB, playing for the Mets and the Philadelphia Phillies. In addition to being a World Series winner, the centerfielder was also a three-time All-Star and a Silver Slugger winner. He last played in 1996, though he launched a comeback attempt during spring training in 1998 before finally retiring at the age of 35.
With News Wire Services
