More Problems for Hoyt: Was Arrested Twice for Marijuana

SAN DIEGO —  Padre pitcher LaMarr Hoyt, besides being detained by U.S. Custom agents on Feb. 10, also was arrested eight days later and charged with possession of marijuana and carrying a switch-blade knife, police reports show.

Sources close to Hoyt said he will be in a rehabilitation center for at least 28 days. He will be due to leave on March 26, 11 days prior to the opening game in Los Angeles.

Still, his attorney, Ron Shapiro, pointed out Tuesday that Hoyt was charged only with a misdemeanor offense in the latest arrest. He was carrying less than an ounce of marijuana, and possession of a switch blade is not against the law where Hoyt grew up in South Carolina, Shapiro said.

Police reports said Hoyt, accompanied by an unidentified male passenger, was driving a 1962 Chevrolet on the 5800 block of Balboa Avenue when he was stopped and charged. He will be arraigned March 28 at 8:30 a.m. in San Diego Municipal Court.

“It seems like every time they find LaMarr, he never has hard stuff (drugs) on him thank God,” Shapiro said.

Earlier, the U.S. Custom agents had stopped Hoyt for possession of marijuana, Valium tablets and Quaaludes.

Shapiro did not neglect the severity of the arrest, but he said Tuesday: “Right now, I’m more concerned about LaMarr’s treatment, and don’t want to talk about anything else.”

In a related development, Padre president Ballard Smith will present a voluntary drug testing program to the Padres in a meeting tentatively scheduled for today in Yuma. Sources say the program will be identical to the one being used by the Baltimore Orioles.

In the Oriole program, testing is done through individual hospitals instead of the baseball team, and confidentiality is the central theme.