Cynthia Garvey Freed After 1 Day Pending Contempt Case Hearing

Cynthia Garvey, the ex-wife of baseball star Steve Garvey, was released from Sybil Brand Institute on Tuesday on the order of a state appellate court, a day after she had been jailed for violating a child visitation order.

The four-judge 2nd District Court of Appeal determined that Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Frances Rothschild had erred in denying Garvey bail, pending a review of a sentence imposed by the judge.

“We find (Garvey) should be released on her own recognizance,” the justices ruled. “Nothing in this order is to be construed as to our ultimate decision on the merits of the petition.”

Leaves With Attorney

Several hours after Tuesday’s ruling, a sobbing Garvey left the jail in Monterey Park, flanked by three female sheriff’s deputies. She did not speak with reporters before climbing into her attorney’s car about 2:30 p.m.

Rothschild found Garvey guilty of 43 charges of contempt for violating a 1988 visitation order and immediately ordered her to jail, pending a Nov. 3 hearing on a 126-day court-ordered sentence.

The judge ruled that she had “willfully” disobeyed an order requiring that daughters Whitney, 13, and Krisha, 14, spend Tuesday afternoons and every other weekend with their father and that he be allowed to speak to them on the telephone.

According to wire service reports, Garvey was reunited with his daughters on Tuesday morning. The children had refused to go with him when he tried to gain custody on Monday.

The former first baseman for the Dodgers and the San Diego Padres, who is in private business in San Diego, has remarried and lives in Del Mar with his wife, Candace.