Caminiti ordered into drug treatment
By Lynn Brezosky
Associated Press

HOUSTON — Former National League MVP Ken Caminiti was ordered to a state-run drug treatment facility Tuesday, giving him another chance to avoid jail time for cocaine use.

Caminiti tested positive for cocaine use last week, prompting prosecutors to request his probation on a drug conviction be revoked. Texas District Judge William Harmon overruled that request Tuesday on the condition Caminiti enter a tougher program.

“The judge’s feeling was that he has been through three or four different private programs,” said Caminiti’s lawyer, Kent Schaffer. “The judge is feeling that none of them worked.

“A lot of private programs are like very, very nice hotels and they happen to have treatment a couple of hours a day,” Schaffer said. “The judge wants to make sure he’s someplace where he can concentrate.

Caminiti turned himself over to the court Tuesday and was to stay at the Harris County Jail until arrangements were made at the center in Humble, a suburb northeast of Houston. The program is operated by the state jail system and stays run four-to-six months.

“He recognizes that he’s having some problems and he needs this sort of treatment,” Schaffer said.

The former third baseman pleaded guilty of cocaine possession last March, four months after police found him and two other men with drugs and drug paraphernalia in a Houston motel.

He entered a three-year community supervision agreement, meaning the conviction would not be on his record if he met the terms of the deal. As part of the terms, Caminiti was ordered to receive counseling three times a week, speak to students about drugs, continue attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and submit to periodic urinalysis.

A longtime member of the Houston Astros, Caminiti was the NL MVP in 1996 with the San Diego Padres, hitting 40 homers and driving in 130 runs. He returned to the Astros in 1999, before winding up his major league career with the Texas and Atlanta in 2001.