Arrested Indians Update: In the wake of the Biogenisis PED scandal, Chris Perez has been busted for a different type of drug. Rocky River police are investigating Chris Perez for allegedly receiving a pound of marijuana in the mail. According to criminaldefenselawyers.com, the penalty for possession in Ohio of up to 1,000 grams (2.2 lb) of pot is up to a $2,500 fine and/or a year in prison. While the fine would be nothing for the Indians closer who is making over $7M for this season, a year in prison would severely extend his trip to the DL. Of course, unless they try to make an example of him, athletes tend to do less time in prison than regular people.
Also, the information in this case is very conflicting at this point, with some sources saying that he was arrested, while others saying it is just being investigated. If he is arrested he would be far from the first Indian with legal trouble. A year ago Fausto Carmona (Roberto Hernandez) was arrested in the Dominican Republic for falsifying documents and before that Shin-Soo Choo was in trouble with a DUI and Scott Sauerbeck was arrested for doing things we'd rather not mention. Chris Perez has to be considered one of the greatest closers in Indians history and everyone should remember that he is innocent until proven guilty.
Update 6/7: Mark Gillespie has the complete story now available on cleveland.com. Rather than just repeat everything written there, I recommend clicking the link and reading the story yourself. One thing that does appear to be certain is that Perez is guilty of something, because the police found some marijuana already in his house, other than the package that was shipped to him. There was a lot of confusion when the initial story came out, but things seem to be cleared up now. At this point it seems like Perez (and his wife, who was also charged), should avoid jail time, but I wouldn't be surprised if he is suspended by either Major League Baseball or the Indians. There is some precedence in this case as Tim Lincecum was arrested in 2009 on possession charges. He avoided jail time by just paying a fine and was never suspended by anyone. Of course, San Francisco is a little more liberal place than Cleveland and the Indians are certainly not very happen about the current situation.
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