Mark Grace Could Face Prison Time In Arizona

A grand jury on Oct. 3 indicted Grace on four felony counts of aggravated driving or actual physical control while under the influence of intoxicating liquor or drugs, said Jerry Cobb, Maricopa County Attorney’s Office spokesman.

Grace is charged not only with driving under the influence but also driving with a suspended license and without an interlock device, as required under his previous DUI conviction.

If convicted on all counts, Grace faces between 1 and 3.75 years in prison on each count, but the sentences would likely be imposed concurrently because they relate to one incident, Cobb said.The article indicates that Grace could lower possible prison time if he “ pleads guilty to reduced charges”, though it doesn’t say what that would amount to. Grace will have a pre-trial conference on December 5; the Diamondbacks announced after his arrest that he would not be returning to their TV booth.

And both of their television broadcasters did not finish the year with the team. Lead play-by-play voice Daron Sutton was suspended for insubordination around midseason and didn’t return, and color commentator (and former D’backs player) Mark Grace was taken off the air after he was arrested for DUI for the second time in a little over a year.

Thursday, team president Derrick Hall announced Sutton and Grace won’t be back:

Former Diamondbacks first baseman Mark Grace, a broadcaster for the team since 2004, was arrested in August in Scottsdale, Arizona, for driving under the influence. Grace also had been arrested in May, 2011, on the same charge.

The Chicago Sun-Times is reporting that police in Maricopa County, Arizona, is asking for the charge to be upgraded:

Earlier in the season, the Diamondbacks suspended Daron Sutton for wearing suits. Or something. So they were already an announcer down in the booth, and news broke on Friday that Mark Grace was going to take an indefinite leave of absence to “seek personal assistance.” From the Arizona Republic, the mystery has been cleared up:

According to Scottsdale Police, Grace was pulled over at about 9 p.m. for having expired registration on his license plates. Grace was also arrested for DUI in Scottsdale on May 30, 2011.This is Grace’s second DUI arrest since joining the Diamondbacks’ broadcast team -- he was also arrested in May, 2011.

Friday, it was announced that Grace would be off the air for a time:

There’s no word on what this “assistance” would be. This means that the D’backs’ original 2012 broadcast team of Grace and Daron Sutton would both be off the air; Sutton was suspended by the team for insubordination in June.