Strawberry Sentenced to 30 Days in Jail
T A M P A, Fla., Nov. 9 -- Darryl Strawberry was sentenced today to30 days in jail, with credit for the 15 days the cancer-strickenbaseball star already has served.
Noting a doctor’s testimony that Strawberry will die if hedoesn’t resume the chemotherapy he abandoned after being jailed,Criminal Court Judge Florence Foster told him to resume thetreatments as soon as possible.
“You have got to get the therapy or you are history,” shesaid.
Prosecutors and attorneys for Strawberry agreed that with thetime served, gain time and other considerations of Florida’s prisonsystem, Strawberry could be out of jail in just a few more days.
An exact release day was uncertain today at the sentencinghearing.
Once out, the suspended New York Yankees slugger, who also isfighting a cocaine addiction, must return to a privatesubstance-abuse treatment center where he had been serving housearrest for violating probation from a street-drug case.
Random Drug Tests Ordered
Strawberry wound up in jail because he left the center, Health CareConnections of Tampa Inc., in mid-October for a binge of cocaineand Xanax.
He is to wear an electronic monitor this time and if he leavesagain, the judge promised him prison.
“If you can’t make it on the outside, I’ll find a place where you can get treatment on the inside,” she warned.The judge also ordered Strawberry to undergo random drug teststhree times a week and to attend the Narcotics Anonymous meetingsheld at the center.
Strawberry acknowledged his problems and his mistakes in tryingto take care of them.
“I can’t run from myself anymore,” he told the judge. “I’ve got to take responsibility for myself in recovery.”
The sentencing came less than a week after he told the samejudge that he stopped chemotherapy for his cancer and used drugsbecause he’d lost his will to live.
Recent Binge Adds to Troubles
Strawberry was arrested in October for violating his housearrested after he had a female friend pick him up at a Tampa drugtreatment center for a crack and Xanax binge.
