Leaf sentenced to work program

Posted: Tuesday May 13, 2008 08:05AM ET

Toronto Maple Leafs forward Mark Bell won't spend any nights behind bars this summer but will spend his days working at a California jail, Rogers Sportsnet reported on its website yesterday. After pleading no contest to drunken driving and hit and run charges last summer, Bell was sentenced yesterday to a work program. Bell will report to the prison every morning and work eight hour days a day from June 2 to Aug. 15, before returning home in the evening. A judge then will decide if the work program should be extended. The jail term stems from a hit and run incident on Labor Day of 2006, in which Bell rear ended a pickup truck near San Jose. Bell was playing with the Sharks at the time. Bell fled the scene leaving the driver with head injuries.

Toronto Star

Mark Bell , Scott Cunningham/Getty Images

Mark Bell , Scott Cunningham/Getty Images

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Wow.....they actually have the drunk drivers PAY over there i see. Meanwhile here.....we cant wait to get them back on the street.

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jailbait mark bell....hopefully he can bounce back from this
at least hes trying i guesss

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Its unbelievable what measures have to be taken with the Leafs just to get them "to work".

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Bostongm - think he'll be driving to "work" and back each day?

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Is this the first time that Bell hit someone leaving them with a head injury and then runs? Does he do this on the ice? I am confused? He should be playing for the Flyers!

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well at least we have that great hit on alfie to remember him by
man that was sweet

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It must be nice for these athletes when they get busted for DUI. Here, go work for 8 hours a day ,you know, like the rest of society. I also love how later in the blurb it refers to it as a "jail term"

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Well Bentley00, he will be "working in a jail". :-S

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Wow...get drunk, get in your car and drive, hit someone innocent and injure them, run away like a real man and in the end you get a part time summer job. Hopefully he gets to work outside so he can work on his tan before he has to go back to Leafs training camp. Hey...one part time job to another and both places he may get to hang out with Rob Ramage.

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Not to get all After School Special on this site or anything, but, I myself am in the middle of a DUI case I am fighting right now, and I gotta tell ya, I didn't hit anybody, or even come close. I got caught at a RIDE program and blew just over (piss me off). Anyways, I'm not getting anywhere near the treatment this guy is getting, and I didn't flee any scenes or hit any people. This kind of treatment - and that they give the Paris Holtons and Lindsay Lohans, for that matter - sure doesn't send much of a message if you ask me. If they want drinking and driving to stop, they need to send their messages with the higher profile cases, where everyone will see what punishment gets levied, as opposed to paying lip service for the "celebrities" and punishing to pi&& ants to make up for it. Maybe that's just my 2 cents...

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This is nothing, he should be more worried about the civil case, his salary will be going towards the dude with the injuries, have fun with that.

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Me thinks they should sentence all of the Leaf players to a summer work program since they do so little of it during the hockey season!

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Those Sudbury cops are not to be trifled with...let me tell ya. Bell would have been shoved inside that Super Stack all summer wearing a Habs sweater.

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