Former New York Yankee baseball player Jim Leyritz, who is considered a god in the Big Apple for hitting a three-run homer in game 4 of the 1996 World Series, finds himself in legal trouble yet again after a heated domestic incident with his wife last night. The New York Daily News reports that Leyritz dragged his wife Karrie out of bed and hit her twice after learning she had written a check without his permission.
Leyritz, whose homer is credited with saving the Yankees ’96 season, has had numerous troubles since retiring from sports. The most serious of those incidents occurred in December 2007 when, after a night of partying with a stripper, he ran a red light and broadsided an SUV driven by a waitress named Fredia Ann Veitch. Veitch was ejected from her vehicle and died at the hospital a short time later.
Leyritz was taken into custody after an unsatisfactory field sobriety test, and later charged with DUI manslaughter. His situation got even worse when a police video surfaced that showed his apparent lack of concern when informed by an officer that Veitch had died. We watched the video and don’t think there’s any way to tell what’s really going through Leyritz’s mind, and he has strongly maintained that he was not being callous, but was just too shocked by events to show much reaction. He has also maintained he wasn’t drunk that night, and the collision was not his fault. Soon a jury will decide whether that’s true, and in the meantime he’ll be arraigned for domestic battery.
