After three weeks in detention, former Lotte Marines and Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Jay Jackson is home in the United States, his agent said Wednesday.
Drug possession charges against the 32-year-old Jackson have been dropped, Kyodo News reported Tuesday, after the Hiroshima District Public Prosecutors Office decided not to pursue the case because “there was not enough evidence to confirm the facts.”
Jackson was arrested on July 10 by police from the western Japan prefecture at his home in eastern Japan. Acting on a tip, they searched his apartment in Chiba east of Tokyo, and found cartridges containing liquid cannabis.
The pitcher has deep connections in Hiroshima, where he played for the pro club there, the Carp from 2016 to 2018. His Japanese former partner gave birth to their son in December 2018, but in the past year has declined to permit Jackson to visit the boy.
Before he signed on with the Marines for this season, he expected being in Japan would make it easier to see his son, but soon said that in some ways it became more complicated. According to Jackson’s agent, Han Lee, the pitcher failed to get visiting rights at a June 23 custody hearing.
The arrest came when he and his lawyers were planning an appeal. This would have cost his former partner and those supporting her more time and money, so the timing of the tip and the arrest are suspicious.
