Drug Rehabilitation for Hoyt a Possible Option, Lawyers Say

SAN DIEGO —  The lawyers of LaMarr Hoyt said Thursday they were evaluating the Padre pitcher’s situation and that drug rehabilitation was a possible option.

Hoyt was arrested Tuesday night on suspicion of trying to bring drugs into the United States from Mexico. He was released Wednesday on a $25,000 bond. One of his lawyers in Baltimore, Michael Moss, was asked Thursday about the possibility of drug rehabilitation and answered: “Nothing has been ruled out at this point in time. He (Hoyt) is troubled right now, but let’s leave it at that. . . . He has other things on his mind other than baseball.”

And Hoyt’s lawyer in San Diego, Howard Frank, said: “As far as rehabilitation, one of the things we’re trying to do is evaluate the situation. Rehabilitation is certainly one of the possible options. Whether it’s right in this case, I don’t know right now.”

Meanwhile, 138 of the pills that Hoyt is accused of trying to bring across the San Ysidro border--originally thought to be Quaaludes--have been found to be propoxyphene, an addictive pain-killer that is considered by doctors to be less effective than codeine.

Hoyt faces a possible sentence of 15 years in prison as well as a $250,000 fine.

A former Cy Young Award winner and Most Valuable Player of the 1985 All-Star game, Hoyt’s baseball career is in jeopardy. He was arrested last Feb. 10 for trying to import Quaaludes and Valium. Eight days later, he was arrested for possession of a switch-blade knife and marijuana. After spending 30 days in rehabilitation, he was given a warning by Padre president Ballard Smith.

Smith, however, still would not comment on Hoyt’s future with the Padres.

“I haven’t talked to LaMarr, and we need to wait to hear what the Commissioner (Peter Ueberroth) has to say,” Smith said Thursday. “Anyway, LaMarr is under a criminal investigation and I can’t expect him to talk to me, and he shouldn’t. So we’ll have to wait and see. We’re not in a situation that we have to make a decision today. Really, the major thing is that we need to talk to the commissioner.”

Smith was unable Thursday to contact Ueberroth, who apparently had left with some major league players on a baseball tour of Japan. But Ueberroth is well aware of the Hoyt case. Last June, Hoyt met with Ueberroth, at which point the commissioner did not find it necessary to fine or suspend Hoyt for the February arrests.

“If this were the first time, he (Hoyt) would be in better shape with the law,” Swan said.