Former Minnesota Twins relief ace Jeff Reardon is blaming his arrest for a jewelry store robbery on medication he was taking for depression.
According to police, a man entered Hamilton Jewelers, a store in a Palm Beach Gardens mall, and gave an employee a note saying he had a gun and wanted money. The man fled with an undisclosed amount of money.
Reardon was arrested at a nearby restaurant and police said they recovered the stolen money. He was charged with armed robbery.
Reardon did not have a gun and offered no resistance when he was handcuffed, said Lt. David O'Neill
"He said it was the medication that made him do it and that he was sorry,"O'Neill said.
Reardon's baseball career lasted 16 seasons. He played for the Expos, the New York Mets, Montreal Expos, Boston Red Sox, Atlanta Braves, Cincinnati Reds and New York Yankees.
Over his career, Reardon was 73-77 with 367 saves and a 3.16 ERA.
His lawyer, Mitchell Beers said the death of Reardon's 20-year old son of a drug overdose in February, 2004, was painful for for him and he was taking medication for depression.
Beers said that Reardon also underwent a heart angioplasty last week and has been taking medication for that.
I was saddened to here this news. Reardon was a great person and I hope that his illness gets taken care of. If Reardon did in fact do this I hope he takes the punishment and does not use the mental illness defense. It appears that he is going to use that as his defense.
His kid killed him self last year and sense then it is my understanding that Jeff Reardon has really struggled with some issues.
The picture in fact looks nothing like the man I remember.
2 comments:
God help me if I lose a son at that age -- depression is extremely likely and the by-product of depression could be a dessent into crime -- does it justifiy robbing a bank -- no. Does it explain how he could come to rob a bank yes. As a right leaning rebublican how should I view this incident -- practically my friend -- if the goods were recovered and no-one was hurt -- drop the case and get Reardon some help so it doesn't happen again. The next thing may be suicide.
I agree with you. I don't know how I would handle losing my kid at a young either.
I don't think anyone can justifiy the robbing at all. The only thing I think a little different on is some punishment needs to be given. That could be community service. Yes he does need help with the depression, and that should be given to him as well.
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