Legal Troubles Continue For Jockey Arroyo
Updated: Saturday, June 26, 2010 8:39 AM
Posted: Friday, June 25, 2010 4:31 PM
Jockey Norberto Arroyo Jr., arrested in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. last year for cocaine possession, faces a new charge of bail jumping after being extradited from Florida to appear in Saratoga County Court on June 25.
Arroyo had been scheduled to appear in court on May 7, where he would have received a 2 1/2-year sentence after pleading guilty on March 5 to the Class D felony of criminal possession of a controlled substance in the fifth degree. Law enforcement officers discovered the substance, 11.9 grams of cocaine, when they stopped Arroyo for erratic driving in Saratoga Springs on Aug. 16, 2009.
The jockey, however, had been arrested in Kentucky on a Florida warrant for aggravated domestic battery before his scheduled New York court appearance. He was extricated to Florida and had been incarcerated in a Marion County Jail since May 12.
Officials with the Saratoga County District Attorney’s office said Arroyo failed to advise the New York court that he had been arrested. The charges for domestic battery have since been dropped by the Florida State Attorney’s Office, although Arroyo served time in jail for driving with a suspended license.
Bail jumping carries an additional four-year sentence, and the failure to appear could mean that Arroyo’s sentence will stretch to seven total years. Remanded without bail to the Saratoga County Jail, he will be sentenced July 2.
“Regardless of how distant a location the defendant may go to avoid his sentence, we will extradite the individual and bring him back so that the interests of justice are served,” said James Murphy, the Saratoga County District Attorney. “Mr. Arroyo will be held responsible for his criminal conduct.”
Arroyo began his riding career in 1999 and has been aboard 991 winners with earnings of more than $37 million. He last rode in October of 2009.
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