Former New York Mets player Lenny Dykstra completed his fall from graces on Monday when he was sentenced Monday three years in prison after pleading no contest to grand theft auto.
According to CNN:
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Cynthia Ulfig denied Dykstra’s motion to withdraw his plea. He pleaded no contest in October to three counts of grand theft auto and filing a false financial statement.
Beginning in January 2011, Dykstra, and two co-defendants tried to lease various high-end automobiles from several area dealerships by providing fraudulent information and claiming credit through a phony business, prosecutors said.
A criminal complaint contended that Dykstra and Robert Hymers, 27, his accountant, provided information from a man they claimed was a co-signer, but who had not authorized his name to be used.
Leases were not approved at two dealerships, but the pair and Christopher Gavanis, 30, a friend of Dykstra’s, drove off with three cars at one company by providing fraudulent information to a dealer, said Deputy District Attorney Alex Karkanen.
Those cars have since been returned, he said.
The icing on the cake was that during the arrest LAPD officers allegedly found cocaine and ecstasy when they searched Lenny’s house.
In exchange for his plea, prosecutors agreed to drop 21 charges against him, including attempted grand theft auto, identity theft, possession of a controlled substance and unauthorized possession of a syringe.