New York Family Law Blog

Dwight Gooden, 46 and a former Mets and Yankee star, was recently sentenced to five years of probation for driving under the influence while taking his young son to school. He had cocaine and sleeping pills in his system.
Gooden faced three years in prison due to an earlier plea agreement, but a Superior Court judge said the defendant deserved another chance to eradicate his addiction. New York Family Attorneys report that the judge referred to Gooden as a decent guy with a good shot at “finishing the game.” He said that the National Cy Young Award winner of 1985 should think of himself as a fourth-inning pitcher being hammered by the batters of the opposing team. His coaches are considering taking him out of the game. In this analogy, the judge was saying that being removed from the game would result in ruining his legacy, embarrassing and possibly alienating his children, missing a significant portion of their childhood, or even death. And it’s up to Gooden to decide if he wants to play with the attitude of staying in the game.
The prosecutor tried to sway the judge’s decision by citing Gooden’s history. The former MLB player has a slew of failed treatments under his belt. The prosecuting attorney insisted that the former baseball star should have to serve time in prison because he didn’t deserve or qualify for special probation.
The defense argued that Gooden was readier than he even had been to tackle his addiction – for his own sake and for his seven children’s sakes. According to a Family Lawyer in New York, the most convincing argument for a better outcome from this treatment cycle is the knowledge that should Gooden violate his parole, he will be put in prison for 10 years. He’d miss graduations, marriages, grandchildren being born, science fairs, little league championships and much more.
Gooden admitted in interviews in Manhattan and Westchester County after the hearing that his life is on the line. “I just have to take it a day at a time, and sometimes an hour at a time. I can’t look at it like I have to do this for 10 years. I just have to look at it like I have to get through today and then deal with tomorrow when it comes,” he said.

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A man and his girlfriend made a crucial and deadly mistake when they made the decision to let the man drive her young son home after she was arrested one evening, revealed a New York City Family Lawyer. In Manhattan and Long Island this crime is considered the ultimate in Child Abuse.
After his girlfriend left with police, the drunken man got behind the wheel, and shortly after while driving too fast, he hit a tree, slammed into a cyclone fence and killed the 5-year-old boy who was in the back seat.
When police arrived on the scene the boy was already dead and after some testing, they concluded the man’s blood alcohol level was twice the legal limit.
The drunken man claimed he had been forced by police to drive the car after his girlfriend was arrested. Both he and the girlfriend maintain that they had begged the officers not to let him drive the boy and not to arrest her.
In addition, the man was driving on a suspended license and stated in court reports that his girlfriend was his designated driver. His attorney argued that the case was one of “entrapment and necessity” and that again the man was forced behind the wheel by police officers and that they had threatened to arrest him if he didn’t follow his direction. .
In a statement the girlfriend said, “I told the police three different times that he was drunk and begged them not to let him drive. They didn’t want to believe me and now my boy is dead.”
A N York Family Lawyer pointed out that court reports indicated inconsistent statements from both clients and that most likely his verdict came in quickly due to the inconsistencies. She said to the jury, “Don’t forget the testimony we have from a security supervisor at the hospital.”
This basically reminded the jury that although the woman claimed she had begged the officers not to let her boyfriend drive, she admitted to the security officer at the hospital that she had done the opposite. She had begged the officers to let the man drive her son home.
The guilty man in the case could not be reached for comment and it is unclear when his sentencing will be announced at this time. The mother, who lost her son to this tragedy, declined to comment on the case and is currently expected to be serving time for other crimes unrelated to this case.

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