Angels’ Harvey Fined, Put on 3 Years’ Probation in April DUI Case

Angel relief pitcher Bryan Harvey pleaded guilty July 17 in North Orange County Municipal Court to a charge of driving under the influence of alcohol.

He was fined $1,031.50 at the Fullerton courthouse, placed on three years’ probation, prohibited from driving a motor vehicle for 90 days except to and from work and ordered to enroll in an alcoholism counseling program.

According to police reports, Harvey was stopped at 1:50 a.m. April 16 by a California Highway Patrol officer while traveling east on the Riverside Freeway, west of the Imperial Highway, in his 1988 Chevrolet Astro.

Harvey was given a field sobriety test and arrested. He was taken to Orange County Jail, where a breath analysis test registered .15; the state’s legal limit is 0.08.

Harvey was booked and placed in a holding cell. In accordance to the jail’s “cite-and-release” program designed to prevent overcrowding, he was held the required four hours and released.

“It was a mistake I made during the first home stand,” said Harvey, 27, who had earned his first save of the season the previous afternoon in the Angels’ 4-1 victory over the Minnesota Twins.

“It just happened. That’s the way it is. I was hoping nobody would find out. I took care of it all.”

Harvey, who says he had no previous DUI offenses, said he has paid the fine and will fulfill the driver education part of his sentence in North Carolina, where he lives in the off-season.

In his second full season with the Angels after spending part of 1987 and ’88 with the club’s affiliates in Midland, Tex., and Edmonton, Canada, Harvey has a 2-2 record this season with a 3.00 earned-run average in 36 innings. He is second to Mark Eichhorn in saves with 11 and was unable to pitch Sunday and Monday because of a strained muscle in his upper back.

Angel spokesman Tim Mead said the club would have no comment.

Staff writer Helene Elliott in Oakland contributed to this story.