Leyritz accused of battery
Former New York Yankee Jim Leyritz will be spending the weekend in jail following his arrest early yesterday on charges of domestic battery, a Broward County (Fla.) judge ruled.
Leyritz is accused of dragging his ex-wife out of bed and pushing her to the floor because she wrote a check without his permission, police said. Broward County Judge John Hurley set bail at $1,000 for that offense, but another judge revoked Leyritz' bond in a DUI manslaughter case stemming from a fatal 2007 crash.
In the domestic-battery case, Leyritz said his ex-wife, Karrie Leyritz, hurt herself to get back at him - all because he wants to evict her from the house they share in Davie, Fla., just south of Fort Lauderdale.
"That's ridiculous," Karrie Leyritz said. "Now all of a sudden I'm lying?"
Jim Leyritz, 45, was charged with simple domestic battery.
Karrie Leyritz called police from a neighbor's house, where she fled after the alleged argument, a police report said. When officers arrived about 3 a.m., she was bleeding above her eye.
Police found streaks of blood on a wall at the home, according to the report. Karrie Leyritz told police what happened and admitted she had been drinking, the report said.
But police said in the report that the victim gave two "totally different" accounts of what happened.
First, she said she argued with her ex-husband in the foyer, then he hit her and pushed her to the ground.
Later, she said he dragged her out of bed and rammed her against the bedroom wall, the report said.
Karrie Leyritz denies giving two versions of the story and says she was "misunderstood." The argument started in the bedroom, she said, and ended in the foyer.
Police woke up their three children, who apparently slept through the incident. The two children they spoke with didn't hear anything strange, the report said.
One child said that he heard his parents argue earlier that evening, but that his mother was drunk and likely hit herself.
Jim Leyritz and one of the children said they heard Karrie Leyritz leave the house a few minutes before police arrived, and thought she had stepped outside for a cigarette, according to the report.
Karrie Leyritz said she's not surprised her son told police she made it all up.
"He's constantly hearing his father bad-mouth me," she said. "I can't control what my ex-husband says."
Jim Leyritz is scheduled to go to trial Sept. 14 for a fatal December 2007 crash in Fort Lauderdale. Leyritz is accused of being legally drunk when he failed to stop at a red light and struck a car driven by Fredia Veitch, 30, killing the woman.
Leyritz played 11 major league seasons, most notably with the Yankees. He hit a memorable home run in the 1996 World Series to help the Yankees win Game 4 against Atlanta.
Noteworthy
* The Texas Rangers borrowed millions of dollars from Major League Baseball within the last week, Yahoo! reported.
* Righthander Winton Abreu has been acquired by Cleveland from Tampa Bay for minor league righthander John Meloan.
In games last night:
* At New York, Franklin Gutierrez and Russell Branyan homered, leading Seattle past CC Sabathia (7-5) and the Yankees, 8-4. The Yanks' seven-game winning streak was snapped.
* At Kansas City, Mark Buehrle (8-2) was dominant into the ninth inning, allowing six hits and a run, and the surging Chicago White Sox beat the Royals, 4-1, for their fifth victory in a row. *
