Gooden, Sister Involved in a Dispute With Rental Car Clerk in New York

NEW YORK — New York Met pitcher Dwight Gooden, his sister and another woman with them were involved in a dispute Tuesday night in connection with returning a rental car at LaGuardia Airport.

Betty Jones, 34, of Tampa, Fla., Gooden’s sister, allegedly tossed a drink into the face of a Hertz rental clerk, Dorothy Taylor, after a dispute over the car’s mileage.

Port Authority police spokesman Allen Morrison said Jones was charged with harassment and was released after being issued a summons.

A Hertz clerk who witnessed the incident but asked not to be identified said Gooden, the 1985 National League Cy Young Award winner, was “abusive and nasty.”

“They all had drinks in their hands when they walked in the service area,” the clerk added. “Something was wrong with the mileage, so the normal procedure is to have the customer go out and double check the mileage. They got bent out of shape over that.”

Gooden spent about an hour in the Port Authority police station trying “to iron out things,” according to a police spokesman.

Before Wednesday’s rained-out game against St. Louis, Gooden said that the matter might have been dropped had they apologized.

But Gooden, his sister and the other woman did not apologize.

“We didn’t do anything wrong,” Gooden said.

Gooden admitted that they did call the clerk a liar because of the mileage.

He said the drinks were non-alcohol.