CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Ugueth Urbina was arrested on a charge of attempted murder, police said on Tuesday.
Last month, Urbina and a group of men allegedly wielded machetes at several employees at his family's ranch, and poured gasoline on them in an attempt to set them on fire. Five workers were injured, and one of them suffered burns on the back and right arm, police said.
One victim, Argenis Farias, accused Urbina of being among the attackers.
Urbina, who was detained late Monday at another home on the outskirts of Caracas, has insisted he had nothing to do with the violence at the ranch.
Urbina's lawyer said the pitcher was sleeping at the time and was not involved. The authorities said Urbina would be formally charged once he appears before a judge.
Urbina became a free agent after playing the last season with the Phillies.
"This of course can in some way hurt his career as a professional ballplayer, and all will depend on the way in which he is brought before justice," said defense lawyer Jose Luis Tamayo.
Urbina was with his mother and other relatives when the police came with an arrest warrant, Tamayo said. He called the arrest "inexplicable."
"Aside from whether a person is guilty of a crime or not, if there is no danger of flight or obstruction of justice, that person has a right to be tried while free," Tamayo said.
The lawyer said Urbina has cooperated with the authorities all along, noting he has come to the police voluntarily to provide testimony.
It was the second violent incident in a year for the Urbina family. Urbina's mother was kidnapped by drug traffickers in September 2004 and held for $6 million. She was rescued five months later in a mountainous zone in southern Venezuela.
Urbina has a 44-49 record with 237 saves and a 3.45 ERA in 11 seasons.
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Ugueth Urbina was arrested on a charge of attempted murder, police said on Tuesday.
Last month, Urbina and a group of men allegedly wielded machetes at several employees at his family's ranch, and poured gasoline on them in an attempt to set them on fire. Five workers were injured, and one of them suffered burns on the back and right arm, police said.
One victim, Argenis Farias, accused Urbina of being among the attackers.
Urbina, who was detained late Monday at another home on the outskirts of Caracas, has insisted he had nothing to do with the violence at the ranch.
Urbina's lawyer said the pitcher was sleeping at the time and was not involved. The authorities said Urbina would be formally charged once he appears before a judge.
Urbina became a free agent after playing the last season with the Phillies.
"This of course can in some way hurt his career as a professional ballplayer, and all will depend on the way in which he is brought before justice," said defense lawyer Jose Luis Tamayo.
Urbina was with his mother and other relatives when the police came with an arrest warrant, Tamayo said. He called the arrest "inexplicable."
"Aside from whether a person is guilty of a crime or not, if there is no danger of flight or obstruction of justice, that person has a right to be tried while free," Tamayo said.
The lawyer said Urbina has cooperated with the authorities all along, noting he has come to the police voluntarily to provide testimony.
It was the second violent incident in a year for the Urbina family. Urbina's mother was kidnapped by drug traffickers in September 2004 and held for $6 million. She was rescued five months later in a mountainous zone in southern Venezuela.
Urbina has a 44-49 record with 237 saves and a 3.45 ERA in 11 seasons.
There is a weird situation in Venezuela whereby the wealthy are subject to these strange types of scenarios, some say by indirect authority of the government, as forms of extortion. Urbina and his family should get the hell out of there, take his money with him, and never come back. If Venezuela was smart they would make thieir country a place friendly to wealthy individuals and do.... Resorts, low priced high quality (a 700,000 secure house on a large parcel of land... something that would cost 10 mil or so here for the same thing), and friendly atmosphere to keep the money there. Good luck to Urbina.. I don't buy one second or one word of this crap.
December 8th, 2005, 12:59 am
MKsmn515
Bubbles the Lion
Joined: January 22nd, 2006, 1:36 am Posts: 60 Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan
any1 know if he got out?
i dont think any1 can last in a Venezuala prison for more than this amount of time...
not that we need a closer cuz we have homophobe todd jones as our closer
March 15th, 2006, 1:12 pm
wjb21ndtown
MKsmn515 wrote:
any1 know if he got out?
i dont think any1 can last in a Venezuala prison for more than this amount of time...
not that we need a closer cuz we have homophobe todd jones as our closer
Typically "prisoners" are more "people of interest" or wealthy people that the government is looking to extort money from. I would imagine he had to pay some sort of hefty fine and they let him go... I've heard updates on ESPN that elude that he has to go back for trial, ext... From what I understand they're using his brothers as a means of extorting money from him too... The whole situation is kinda sick/sad actually.... Even the alleged kidnapping of his mom was rumored to be an exercise of the government...
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