Former King in legal trouble
Former Kings defenseman Jere Karalahti was charged Tuesday morning with smuggling amphetamines into Finland, according to the Associated Press. The 32-year-old, who has been playing hockey in Finland, was charged with smuggling nine pounds of amphetamines into the country and providing $29,500 for the smuggling operations. If found guilty, he could face six years in prison.
I'm sure this comes as little surprise to Kings fans. Karalahti left the NHL in 2002 after being suspended six months for his third violation of the league's substance-abuse policy. He was originally drafted by the Kings in the sixth round in 1993.
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Rich Hammond has covered the Kings, on a full-time or part-time basis, since the 2000-01 season. He was the beat writer for the entire John Torchetti era and has witnessed Bob Miller singing country music in a Nashville honky-tonk bar. A native of Los Angeles, Rich has worked at the Daily News since 1999 and also serves as the paper's deputy sports editor. E-mail Rich at rich.hammond@dailynews.com.
Jill Painter joined the Daily News in 2000 and during the last eight years she's covered the Dodgers, Cal State Northridge, UCLA, Kings, golf and everything in between. Even though she's from Colorado, she still freezes in the Staples Center press box but always manages to thaw her fingers in time to make deadline. E-mail Jill at jill.painter@dailynews.com.
I think we need him back. Lets plan a jail break.......
He is a defenseman so a jailbreak is not out of the question. Does DL have
any Finnish connections?
Extremely sad to read this, but not unexpected. I expect he'll do serious time given the offense. What a way to throw talent (and a life) down the drain...
9 pounds of meth??? That's allot man...
I don't think all amphetamines qualify as meth.
Wasted talent. He could have been good.
Didn't he already do time for heroin?
Yes. He had a run in with heroin before playing for the Kings. It's too bad. Karalahti had a lot of potential. Kind of a Norstrom type of player.
He was asked to be more of a Norstrom player after his first season here in 1999 - he and Boucher did a prety good number on the Red Wings forwards in the 2000-01 playoffs.
Prior to being asked to play that role though he jumped in a lot more. He had a cannon for a shot and was mean; his only downfall was his skating ability, which was ugly. Not Allison ugly, but ugly - it looked like he had bricks in his skates. In 1998 he was voted as the "Best Player Not in THe NHL" by THN if I recall.
Shame he chose this life over the one that could have been. He could have been a monster defenseman.