Ted Lilly facing up to five years in jail with felony charge

Former Chicago Cubs southpaw and current special assistant, Ted Lilly, has been charged on three counts of vehicle insurance fraud according to KSBY.

Lilly, 39, reportedly crashed his RV that was worth around $200,000 but failed to file a claim after purchasing insurance for his vehicle. With the 10-year veteran scheduled to appear in court again on Feb. 5, the crimes he is being charged with will be a year old in March.

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As mentioned at the beginning of the article, Ted is being charged with three felony counts. The first is filing a false insurance claim, second is a false statement in support of a claim, and the third is ‘failing to disclose a material fact in connection with an insurance claim’ – ouch.

Shortly after calling it a career after 15-years in the league, Cubs’ president Theo Epstein took it upon himself to hand Lilly a job. Assuming that this incident happened after Ted was hired, something this serious could end up costing him his job with the franchise.

In his 15-years in the league, Lilly spent three and a half years with the Cubs before finding himself in Los Angeles with the Dodgers near the end of his career. He currently owns a career 4.14 ERA, 130-113 W/L, 1,681/661 K/BB ratio in 1982 2/3 innings between the Expos, Yankees, Athletics, Blue Jays, Cubs, and Dodgers.

According to the Chicago Tribune, Lilly pleaded not guilty to all three charges on Tuesday. Although he pleaded not guilty, the evidence may not be in his favor. If he is in fact convicted, he will be facing up to five years (maximum) in jail.

The question right now is, how is Theo or even the Ricketts family going to handle this situation? There haven’t been any reports or an issued statement released just yet, but something should be expected within the next couple days.

Those in charge could wait to see what happens in February, just don’t be surprised if they end up finding someone else to take Lilly’s job.

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