The judge who holds Darryl Strawberry’s future in her hands says she’s willing to give drug addicts a chance, but after three or four violations, they’re “history.”
At the same time, Tampa, Fla., drug court judge Florence Foster said yesterday that addicts often relapse, but aren’t necessarily locked up.
Taking care not to specifically talk about the ex-Yankees slugger’s case, Foster said jail is the last resort for those who appear before her, but after three or four violations she will crack down.
“As a judge, I am very punitive. If I give you a break and you screw up, you’re history,” Foster said.
“They know if they walk away, they are walking to Florida State Prison.”
Foster will decide next Wednesday whether Strawberry will go to prison for his fourth violation of the terms of his sentence for a 1999 drug and prostitution solicitation arrest.
The judge offered her views on penalties for drug addicts during a discussion of Florida’s drug court program with The Associated Press.
Strawberry’s lawyer, Joe Ficarrotta, wants him placed in a secure facility that will provide both drug treatment and chemotherapy for his colon cancer, which spread to his stomach last year.
Prosecutors want the former baseball star to go to prison.
The Straw Man surfaced Monday after vanishing from a drug rehab program for four days.
He told his probation officer he was lured away by a crack-smoking acquaintance, held captive by five armed men who ended up stealing his jewelry, and went on a drug binge.
He is now under arrest in the psychiatric ward of a Tampa hospital. The crack binge came while Strawberry, 39, was serving two years of house arrest at the Health Care Connection in Tampa.
His probation officer said the slugger had been doing well in the program and stayed drug-free for nearly five months.
Yankee manager Joe Torre said he hopes Strawberry can get help.
“What he is fighting, physically and emotionally, I was just happy they found him. You know, whatever happens, happens. You just hope something will happen where he can be helped and be self-sufficient one of these days,” he said.