Santa Ana-born pride of Garden Grove High, pro baseball warrior, Orange County car wash king, crony of CNBC Mad Moneyman Jim Cramer and convicted thief, druggie, conman and sex offender Lenny Dykstra has been sentenced to 6 1/2 months in lockup despite getting into fights with jailers. U.S. District Court Judge Dean Pregerson in Los Angeles earlier indicated “Nails” would get 14 months, but the robe wearer cut that back when he figured in the months Dykstra spent behind bars awaiting trial.
]
But the former All-Star with the New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies is also allowed to serve the federal time concurrently with his state stretches for grand theft auto, providing false financial statements, possession of cocaine, Ecstasy and synthetic human growth
hormone and exposing himself to maids he'd recruited online.
Pregerson also ordered the 49-year-old to serve 500 hours of community service and pay $200,000 in restitution.
Federal prosecutors wanted Dykstra locked up for 2 1/2 years on their charges. The former big leaguer could smell free air again by the middle of next year.
Dykstra filed for bankruptcy three years ago, claiming he owed more
than $31 million and had only $50,000 in assets (which makes one wonder how he's supposed to come up with $200k in restitution; just sayin'). “Nails” went on to hide, sell or destroy $200,000 worth of items without the permission of the bankruptcy trustee.
Included were chandeliers he removed from a multi-million-dollar home he bought from NHL Hall of Famer Wayne Gretzky that later went into foreclosure and baseball memorabilia Dykstra sold to a Las Vegas dealer.
Dykstra's defense was he was
on a downward spiral fueled by drug and alcohol abuse that dated back to his playing days. Los Angeles
police found cocaine, Ecstasy and synthetic human growth
hormone at his home last year while busting him for grand theft auto tied to one scam he was running. That case was separate from his bust for exposing himself to maids he hired through Craigslist.
But his attorneys claim he is unsafe behind bars due to his celebrity status, having recently been “beaten to a pulp” and having some teeth knocked out while in a
Los Angeles County jail. A Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department spokesman confirmed Dykstra had been in a fight, but not with other inmates but deputies who had to restrain him in April while taking him to a
hospital for undisclosed reasons. Dykstra did not lose teeth but did suffer a bloody nose, the deputy revealed.
Follow OC Weekly on Twitter @ocweekly or on Facebook!
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.