Former Major League Baseball player Lenny “Nails” Dykstra was hammered by the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office with several felony charges including five counts of attempted grand theft auto, three counts of grand theft auto, eight counts of filing false financial statments, four counts of identity theft and three counts of possession of a controlled substance. Police found cocaine, ecstasy and Somatropin also known as human growth hormone (hGH) at his home when he was arrested for grand theft auto in April 2010. The charges filed by the Los Angeles District Attorney are independent of the charges filed by federal prosecutors last month for embezzling from his bankruptcy estate.
The New Yorker magazine once touted former New York Mets star Lenny Dykstra as “baseball’s most improbable post-career success story.” He transformed himself into a financial guru and ace stock picker, drove a Maybach and bought Wayne Gretzky’s palatial estate near the Sherwood Country Club.
But on Monday, Dykstra’s well-documented financial collapse took another sharp turn when authorities charged him with nearly two dozen felony counts related to a scheme to obtain luxury cars and possession of cocaine, human growth hormone and Ecstasy.
The charges come a month after Dykstra was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of bankruptcy fraud and obstruction of justice.
Dykstra’s catastrophic personal and financial collapse certainly eclipses any concern about Dykstra’s use of performance-enhancing drugs during his baseball career; the addition of an asterisk next to Dykstra’s name due to his alleged steroid use pales in comparison to the serious criminal charges that could land Dykstra in prison.
Rumors of steroid use followed Dykstra during his career. After his career in baseball had ended, additional allegations regarding his past steroid use surfaced. A 2005 affidavit from Jeff Scott, a Florida bodybuilder and convicted steroid dealer, alleged that Dykstra purchased $20,000 of performance-enhancing drugs from him. Scott also alleged that he had injected Dykstra with anabolic steroids on numerous occasions.
The suit also includes a sworn statement from Florida bodybuilder and convicted drug dealer Jeff Scott, who alleges Dykstra paid him $20,000 plus “special perks” over eight years to “bulk-up” the former ballplayer. […]
In an interview, Scott said he injected Dykstra with steroids “more times than I can count,” and that Dykstra stepped up his steroid use in spring training of 1993 because “it was a contract year.”
Author Randall Lane alleged that Dykstra actually admitted using steroids when he interviewed Dykstra for his book, “The Zeroes: My Misadventures in the Decade Wall Street Went Insane“. According to the book, Dykstra took credit along with Jose Canseco for leading the steroid revolution in baseball.
“You know,” Lenny finally said, breaking the ice, “I was like a pioneer for that stuff.” […]
“The juice. I was like the very first to do that. Me and [José] Canseco.”
I needed to do anything I could to protect my job, take care of my family. Do you have any idea how much money was at stake? Do you?”
Perhaps the serious financial charges facing Dykstra will put the seriousness of his past steroid and hGH use in perspective?
Lenny Dykstra
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