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Strawberry Shaken

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

October 25, 2000 / 2:34 PM EDT / CBS

Former baseball star Darryl Strawberry, charged with violating his probation with a weekend drug binge, needs to be back in drug treatment instead of in jail, his attorney said Thursday.

Strawberry appeared briefly before a judge on closed circuit television from the county jail where he is being held. Strawberry did not speak.

The case was sent back to the drug court judge who sentenced him last month to two years' house arrest. No hearing date was set.

Strawberry was arrested Wednesday for leaving the Tampa drug treatment center he now calls home for a weekend crack and prescription drug binge with a female friend.

His attorney said the eight-time all-star was remorseful.

Defense attorney Joseph Ficarrotta said Strawberry has been under stress while battling colon cancer and a drug addiction. The cancer has spread to his stomach, and Strawberry recently started chemotherapy treatments, Ficarrotta said.

"The easiest thing for the judge and the public to do is say: 'How many chances is Darryl Strawberry going to get?'" Ficarrotta said. "I am not ready to give up on Darryl Strawberry."

State corrections officials want Strawberry to serve a 30-day jail sentence and then wear an electronic monitoring device once he's returned to house arrest.

Strawberry has never spent more than 24 hours in jail despite legal troubles that date back to 1990, said Joe Papy, head of the regional corrections office in Tampa. Papy said he hopes a longer jail term will get Strawberry's attention.

Strawberry was remorseful and wants to return to treatment, said Ficarrotta, who met with him in jail on Wednesday night.

"He wants to live, he wants to beat this addiction," Ficarrotta said.

According to documents filed with the court, Strawberry's probation officer says the slugger was picked up at the center by a woman who took him to use drugs. They were gone from about 11 p.m. Saturday until 3 a.m. Sunday.

Strawberry later told his probation officer he used crack and took about 10 Xanax, a prescription drug used to treat anxiety.

Probation officials knew immediately that Strawberry left the treatment center without permission, but waited until they had the results of drug tests Wednesday to arrest him, Papy said.

Strawberry's house arrest was punishment after he pleaded no contest in April 1999 to drug and prostitution charges. He was originally sentenced to 18 months' probation, but violated that last month when he admitted causing a minor traffic accident while driving under the influence of pain killers.

A judge changed the probation to two years of house arrest. He still faces misdemeanor charges in that case.

"I'm saddened by it," Yankees manager Joe Torre said before Game 4 of the World Series. "People who know Darryl feel for him....He's going through a very tough time. He's doing it o himself, basically. That's the sad part."

Wednesday's arrest is the latest in a string of legal run-ins for the 1983 NL Rookie of the Year and eight-time All Star.

In February, Strawberry was suspended for at least a year, his third cocaine-related suspension from baseball in five years.

In 1998, Strawberry was diagnosed with colon cancer, which was treated with surgery and chemotherapy. In August, he underwent surgery to remove a tumor in his stomach.