JUDGE COULD IMPOSE PRISON TERM

TAMPA, Fla., May 3 -- The judge who vowed last year to send Darryl
Strawberry to prison should he violate the terms of his probation will
determine his fate here Friday.

"If you can't make it on the outside, I'll find a place where you can get
treatment on the inside," Judge Florence Foster of Hillsborough Circuit
Court admonished Strawberry last Nov. 9 after she sentenced him to two
years of house arrest in a drug-treatment center.

Strawberry, 39, who has colon cancer, could be sentenced to up to five
years in prison for disappearing from the drug treatment center in March.
He admitted going on a four-day cocaine binge.

"We want him to go to prison," said Pamela Bondi, an assistant state
attorney dealing with the case. "I don't know if we're looking for five
years, but we want enough time for him to complete the in-house drug
program. Our position is that he needs to be in a secure drug treatment
facility, and the only one in our state is the Florida state prison."

At Friday's hearing, the state will offer the testimony of Dr. Emil Dambff,
a Florida Department of Corrections physician, that Strawberry can be
treated for drug addiction and colon cancer in prison. The defense is
expected to counter with several medical experts who say Strawberry would
be hard pressed to get the proper care in prison.

Strawberry has been under police guard at St. Joseph's Hospital here since
April 2, after he was found in Daytona Beach. His lawyer, Joseph
Ficarrotta, later said that Strawberry was being treated for depression.

Strawberry has had a string of legal problems since the late 1980's. When
he left the drug-treatment center in March, it was the third time he had
violated probation. He also tested positive for cocaine in January 2000,
resulting in his banishment from Major League Baseball last season.

Foster originally placed Strawberry on one and a half years of probation
after an April 1999 arrest on charges of drug possession and soliciting a
prostitute. Last September, Strawberry was sentenced to two years of house
arrest after crashing his car while driving under the influence of sleeping
pills and for violating his probation.

On Oct. 21, he left the drug treatment center without permission and
admitted smoking crack.