LOS ANGELES (AP) — Former Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Milton Bradley was sentenced Tuesday to more than 2 ½ years in jail for abusing and threatening his estranged wife.
Bradley, 35, also was ordered to perform 400 hours of community service, half of which will be spent with underprivileged youth in a baseball league. He also will be placed on five years' probation and must complete a year of domestic violence counseling and an anger management program.
Bradley is appealing the sentence and remains free on $250,000 bond. He's scheduled to return to court next month.
Bradley faced up to 7 ½ years in jail after he was found guilty of nine misdemeanor counts, including four counts of spousal battery, one count of assault with a deadly weapon and one count of making criminal threats.
Prosecutors say Bradley threatened and attacked his wife five times in 2011 and 2012. In one incident, Bradley pushed his wife against a wall and choked her after she asked him to stop smoking marijuana in front of their children and wanted his friends to leave their home, authorities said.
The two have been married for five years and have two children together, but are separated and in the middle of a contentious divorce.
Bradley played 11 years with the Dodgers, Montreal Expos, Cleveland Indians, Oakland Athletics, San Diego Padres, Texas Rangers, Chicago Cubs and Seattle Mariners. During his career, he had several incidents where his anger boiled over.
The Dodgers traded him to Oakland in 2005 after he slammed a water bottle at a fan at Dodger Stadium after someone threw it on the field. He received a five-game suspension.
Bradley tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee in 2007 when he played with the Padres after he was spun to the ground by manager Bud Black, who was trying to keep him away from an umpire.
During his brief stint with Seattle, he was suspended for a game for bumping an umpire and ejected for arguing a called third strike. Bradley also got a four-game suspension once for tossing a bag of balls onto the field after an ejection.
He's been a free agent since the Mariners released him in 2011.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.
