Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Former hockey player jailed

Rudy Poeschek, who played with the Lightning in the 1990s, was accused of crashing into trees and mailboxes, then fleeing.

By JANET ZINK
Published March 14, 2005

TAMPA - Back in 1997, Rudy Poeschek was a popular Tampa Bay Lightning hockey player with a reputation as an enforcer who knocked heads on the ice.

On Sunday he was in jail.

Authorities said Poeschek, 38, hit a sewer drain, flattening the two tires on the right side of the car.

That didn't stop him.

He kept going, hitting a palm tree. Then he drove across a lawn, taking out a mailbox. Then came another lawn and a second mailbox. From there, he went back to his own street, where he hit a second palm tree and a third mailbox.

Then he stopped, deputies said.

He and his daughter got out of the vehicle and a neighbor took the girl home to her mother, Poeschek's wife, Heather.

When police came a while later looking for Poeschek, he wasn't home and couldn't be found, officials said.

He turned up 90 minutes later. A neighbor called deputies and said Poeschek was hiding in the neighbor's garage.

When officers went there to arrest Poeschek, he bolted.

He dashed twice around a pond, with deputies in pursuit, before they shot him with a Taser, which stuns people with a powerful electrical charge.

Poeschek was arrested about 11 a.m. and charged with being a habitual traffic offender, driving with a suspended license, resisting arrest without violence, leaving the scene of an accident with property damage and driving with a child not wearing a seat belt, sheriff's officials said.

He was taken to University Community Hospital in Carrollwood for treatment of head injuries related to the car accident. He was later booked into jail and held in lieu of $2,750 bail.

Authorities said he did not appear intoxicated.

Poeschek, has been arrested at least eight times in Hillsborough County since a failed comeback attempt with the Lightning in 2002.

The string began in January 2003, with charges of child abuse and false imprisonment.

In April 2003, he was arrested on charges of using false information to obtain a prescription pain reliever. That was followed by at least five more arrests, several of them for driving with a suspended license.

Now a mortgage broker, he was a defenseman for the Lightning from 1993-97 and spent time with three other teams in the NHL, ending with the St. Louis Blues in 2000.

He often was a fighter on the ice and was a fan favorite in Tampa Bay for his tough, aggressive style.

His best season with the Lightning was his first, in 1993-94, when he set career highs with 71 games played, three goals, nine points and 118 penalty minutes.

He missed part of the 1994-95 season with a broken right thumb. His professional career ended in 2001 in the minor leagues. In 2002, he tried a comeback with the Lightning, but was cut in September.

[Last modified March 14, 2005, 01:28:20]