Posted on 04/08/2003 9:40:07 AM PDT by bedolido
GAINESVILLE (AP) - Former baseball star Darryl Strawberry walked out of prison Tuesday after serving 11 months of an 18-month prison sentence for violating probation on cocaine possession charges.
Strawberry, wearing a gray sweatsuit and sneakers, hugged his wife as walked out of the Gainesville Correctional Institution and said "Thank you" to a guard.
He then got into his Lincoln Navigator, which was driven by another man, and got about a half-mile away when they turned back to get Strawberry's personal belongings, which he'd forgotten. A guard handed him a plastic bag and he was off again. He made no comment to reporters. Strawberry also accepted the $100 check the state gives inmates upon their release, but declined a suit of clothes.
According to papers filed with the Florida Department of Corrections, Strawberry plans to move back in with his wife, Charisse, and his three children in a Lutz, Fla., gated community.
Strawberry and his wife plan to stay in Florida for a few days before a trip to California, his attorney Darryl Rouson said.
"He's doing well," Rouson said before Strawberry's release. "He's been clean for a very long time, longer than ever before."
Although Strawberry was sentenced to 18 months in prison, he received credit for the time he spent in a county jail awaiting sentencing and under Florida law, he only has to serve 85 percent of his sentence.
His imprisonment stemmed from a 1999 arrest for cocaine possession in Tampa. He later pleaded no contest to the charge. Strawberry six times violated his probation before being sentenced to prison by Hillsborough Circuit Court Judge Ralph Steinberg on April 29.
Strawberry, 41, has served his entire sentence at the Gainesville prison, a minimum- and medium-security corrections facility about 135 miles north of Tampa. Corrections officials have said he was a model inmate and had no disciplinary infractions.
The prison includes a 221-bed substance abuse program run by CiviGenics, a Marlboro, Mass., company which provides treatment and therapy programs for criminal justice facilities. It provides treatment programs at 125 prisons in 13 states.
The former All-Star outfielder worked on the grounds crew at the prison, which offered basketball and track as recreation. He was visited twice by his wife and once by a representative of the New York Yankees while imprisoned.
Strawberry was kicked out of an Ocala-area drug treatment facility in March 2002 after a series of non-drug infractions, including having sex with a female resident, smoking, signing autographs and being disrespectful.
Strawberry won World Series titles with the New York Mets in 1986 and the Yankees in 1996 and 1999. He hit 335 homers during 17 seasons and last played in the majors in 1999.
Along with drug problems, he has been treated for colon and stomach cancer. Recent tests showed no signs of the disease.
Copyright 2003, The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press
Former First Lady Hillary Clinton Released from Prison
That wouldn't make me half as happy as, "Former First Lady Hillary Clinton Rots in Prison."
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