VAN NUYS, Calif.–Former Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Milton Bradley was scheduled to be arraigned later this month on 13 misdemeanor charges for allegedly attacking his estranged wife on five occasions between 2011 and 2012.
Bradley, 34, was charged Thursday by the Los Angeles City Attorney’s office with four counts each of spousal battery and criminal threats, two counts each of assault with a deadly weapon and vandalism and one count of dissuading a witness.
His arraignment is scheduled for Jan. 24 at the Van Nuys Courthouse.
Each misdemeanor count carries a potential sentence of one year in jail and up to a $1,000 fine, according to the City Attorney’s Office.
Prosecutors said that on four occasions in 2012, Bradley either attacked or threatened his estranged wife, with who he has two children. In March 2012, he allegedly threatened her with a knife and told her, “You’ll be dead, bitch, before you divorce me,” prosecutors said.
In November 2012, Bradley allegedly pushed his wife against a kitchen wall and choked her because she asked him to stop smoking marijuana in front of their children, according to prosecutors. He also allegedly threw a cell phone at a television screen during an August 2012 argument that led to fight, during which he allegedly kicked her in the ribs.
He also allegedly threatened to kill her in August 2011 while wielding a baseball bat, prosecutors said.
Bradley, a Long Beach Polytechnic High School graduate who made his Major League Baseball debut with the Montreal Expos in 2000, has had a checkered career.
In June 2004, Bradley drew a four-game suspension after throwing a ball bag onto the field after an argument with an umpire. As a member of the Cleveland Indians, an altercation with manger Eric Wedge during spring training prompted his trade to the Dodgers.
The Dodgers suspended Bradley in September 2004 for the final five games of the regular season and ordered him to undergo anger management sessions for throwing a plastic bottle into the stands at Dodger Stadium.
The Dodgers traded Bradley to the Oakland A’s in 2005. He later played for the San Diego Padres, the Texas Rangers, the Chicago Cubs and the Seattle Mariners. The Mariners released him in 2011, and he has been a free agent ever since.
