San Diego’s Former Padre Player Pleads No Contest Assault Charge
San Diego Ex-Padre pleaded no contest to his misdemeanor assault charge Thursday.
Kevin Mitchell, 49, was charged with a misdemeanor for attacking a Leonard Lerma last summer on a South Bay golf course. The defendant was a third baseman for the Padres back in 1987 and in 1989 was named the National League’s Most Valuable Player while he played for the San Francisco Giants. July 21, 2010 Mitchell was charged with assault with force likely to cause great bodily injury for attacking Lerma on the 13th hole of the Bonita Golf club. The former Padre Player pleaded no contest to the charge. He is scheduled to be sentenced on April 4 at the South Bay Courthouse where he is looking at a $1,000 fine and a maximum of one year in jail.
According to the Deputy District Attorney Sherry Thompson, Mitchell first slapped the victim then hit him another three times. Thompson also says that it is unclear as to what motivated the attack. Last year at a preliminary hearing, Lerma testified that the defendant, who was playing in a separate group, drove up in a golf cart and confronted him. According to Lerma’s doctors, he had suffered a concussion. Mitchell’s no contest plea means that he neither admits nor denies the charges and can have the same direct effects as a guilty plea.
This is not the defendants first run in with the law. In 1989 Mitchell’s former girlfriend sued him for beating her and threatening her with a gun. Mitchell completed a domestic violence diversion program in which got the criminal charges dropped.
Ex-Padre Pleads No Contest To Assault Charge, 10news.com, March 3, 2011
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