Legal Troubles
On February 20, 2002, Gooden was arrested in his native Tampa and charged with driving while intoxicated, having an open container of alcohol in his vehicle, and driving with a suspended license. He was arrested again in January 2003 for driving with a suspended license.
On March 12, 2005, Gooden was arrested in Tampa, Florida for punching his girlfriend after she threw a telephone at his head. He was released two days later on a misdemeanor battery charge.
Troubles continued to mount for the former star when, on August 23, 2005, he drove away from a traffic stop in Tampa, after being pulled over for driving erratically. He gave the officer his driver's license, twice refused to leave his car, then drove away. The officer remarked in his report that Gooden's eyes were glassy and bloodshot, his speech was slurred, and a "strong" odor of alcohol was present on him. Three days after the traffic stop, Gooden turned himself in to police.
Gooden was again arrested in March 2006 for violating his probation, after he appeared intoxicated with cocaine at a scheduled meeting with his probation officer, David R. Stec. He chose prison over extended probation, perhaps in the hope that incarceration would separate him from the temptations of his addiction. He entered prison on April 17, 2006. On May 31, Gooden said in an interview from prison, "I can't come back here. I'd rather get shot than come back here. If I don't get the message this time, I never will." Gooden was released from prison November 9, 2006, after nearly seven months' incarceration, and was not placed on further probation.
On the morning of March 24, 2010, Gooden was arrested in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey near his home there after leaving the scene of a traffic accident, having located nearby and found to be under the influence of an undisclosed controlled substance. He was charged with DWI with a child passenger, leaving the scene of an accident, and other motor vehicle violations. Gooden has also been charged with endangering the welfare of a child, because a child was with him at the time of the accident. He later pleaded guilty to child endangerment, received five years probation and was ordered to undergo outpatient drug treatment.
Read more about this topic: Dwight Gooden
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