Lenny Dykstra plea deal includes jail time, limits on Web use

Former star center fielder Lenny Dykstra will not be allowed to post or solicit on social networking or e-commerce sites over the next three years as part of a plea deal with city prosecutors, authorities said.

Dykstra pleaded no contest Wednesday to misdemeanor charges of lewd conduct and assault with a deadly weapon involving women who responded to housekeeping ads he placed on Craigslist, authorities said Wednesday. Prosecutors said he would receive nine months in jail.

Under the plea deal, Dykstra also was placed on three years’ probation, including provisions to prevent him from misusing the Internet, which he used to lure women who traveled long distances and were desperate for work in the bad economy.

City prosecutors said Dykstra placed Craigslist ads for a personal assistant or housekeeping services under a pseudonym. Half a dozen victims responded from 2009 to 2011.

When the victims met Dykstra, he would brag about his baseball accomplishments, show off his memorabilia and then tell them that the job also required them to give him a massage, prosecutors said. During the massage, he would expose himself to them, Deputy City Atty. Lara D. Schwartz said.

“They were not looking for that kind of job,” Schwartz said.

During one incident in July 2010, Dykstra held a knife and forced the victim to massage his body.

Dykstra already has been sentenced to three years in state prison after pleading no contest to grand theft auto and filing a false financial statement in connection with a scheme to use somebody else’s paperwork to steal or lease several new cars.

In January 2011, Dykstra, his accountant Robert Hymers, 27, and friend Christopher Gavanis, 30, tried to lease high-end automobiles from several area dealerships by providing fraudulent information and claiming credit through a phony business, prosecutors said.

Dykstra also is awaiting trial on federal charges related to his bankruptcy.

andrew.blankstein@latimes.com