NHL’s MacTavish Is Released After Serving One Year in Jail

Craig MacTavish, a National Hockey League player, was freed from jail Monday after serving a one-year sentence for vehicular homicide. He said he will never forget his “fatal mistake,” which killed a woman motorist.

“I never thought this day would come,” said MacTavish, who pleaded guilty to the charge stemming from a drunk-driving accident that occurred in January of 1984, when he was with the Boston Bruins. “I never knew how long a year was going to be.”

The crash killed Kim Radley, 26, of Newfield, Me.

“Naturally, I’m really happy,” said MacTavish of his release. “But the sentence isn’t really over. It’s not behind me. So many things remind me of my fatal mistake.”

During his prison term, MacTavish became a free agent and signed with the Edmonton Oilers, whom he plans to join in September.

MacTavish spent three months of his sentence in the Essex County jail in Salem, Mass., and the rest in the Lawrence Correctional Alternative Center.

In the Salem facility, which he called a “human warehouse,” he was confined to a 5-by-8-foot cell that had no plumbing.

“The Salem jail is the biggest deterrent I’ve ever seen,” he said. “The first few weeks were the toughest part of the sentence when your freedom is taken away.”

Craig MacTavish