Former Major League Baseball star Lenny Dykstra, who is currently facing charges he attacked an Uber driver, contends he will be exonerated by 911 records that show he was in fear for his life last year during a wild rideshare in Union County.

The newly released 911 calls the former Mets and Phillies great made from the backseat to NJ Advance Media ahead of another court hearing in the case next month.

“I have a driver trying to kill me right here,” Dykstra can be heard yelling into his cellphone. “I’m in a car. He will not pull over.”

There were two calls with a 911 dispatcher in Linden – one made by Dykstra, the other by the operator when they got cut off and another attempt by the dispatcher to call the former athlete back.

“He kidnapped me in his car,” Dykstra says. “He’s a madman. He won’t stop. Get me out of your car. I do not want to be in your car.”

The calls were made about 3:30 a.m. on May 23, 2018 after Uber driver Brian Lutty, of Roselle, picked up Dysktra on Stockton Circle in Linden, where the former World Series great owns a home.

Lutty told police that after he picked up his fare, the two men argued over the destination and that Dykstra put a black or “bluish attache case” to his head and threatened to kill him. Dykstra wanted to go to Staten Island, but the driver said the Uber app showed a destination in Clark.

“He told me he was going to shoot me and put (the bag) to the back of my head,” Lutty, 48, told, according to a police bodycam recording outside police headquarters.

Lutty admitted he locked Dykstra in his orange truck and then sped off to the Linden Police Department on Knopf Street. He told police when Dykstra fell forward, he shoved him back further into the vehicle.

The driver told police he refused to let Dykstra out of the vehicle because he believed if Dykstra got outside, he would turn back and shoot him, according to a police report.

There was no gun in the bag. Police, however, said they found cocaine, marijuana, a marijuana pipe, and a methamphetamine pill. They charged Dykstra with making terroristic threats and with two counts of drug possession.

Dykstra was indicted on those charges last year, but he has maintained his innocence.

Dykstra said he turned down a deal in which the prosecutor’s office would have dropped the drug offenses if he pleaded guilty to the terroristic threat charge.

“This is America, not Russia. What happened to due process?” Dykstra said Tuesday. “I didn’t do anything wrong. I was the victim. I’m the one being illegally prosecuted, spending money on my defense when I’m innocent. It’s sickening,” he said.

Lenny Dykstra poses next to a photo from his baseball days in a recent photo taken at his Linden home.

In October 2018, a Union County grand jury indicted Dykstra on the same crimes the police charged him with and since he’s a convicted felon, he could face prison time.

Dykstra’s attorney David S. Bahuriak said in an interview last week that the Uber "case has many, many credibility and legal issues.”

“I think it’s obvious these two men had an argument,” Bahuriak said. “But Lenny Dykstra didn’t have a gun. He never had a gun.”

In the 911 call, Dykstra can be heard reacting to the driver’s accusation that he has a weapon.

“Gun? What are you talking about gun?” he said. “This guy’s out of his mind.”

Bahuriak said the prosecution’s case is "exaggerated, not true and not supported by fact.”

The attorney has filed a motion to suppress the drug evidence, calling the search of Dykstra’s bag illegal. The motion will be heard next month in Superior Court in Union County.

“The police needed a warrant in this case,” Bahuriak said. “If you open a bag in search of a gun and you find an amber pill bottle, do you look in that amber pill bottle for a gun?”

Bahuriak accused the county prosecutor’s office of withholding evidence from the grand jury that would have exonerated Dykstra.

“It’s up to the prosecutor to be honest and complete,” Bahuriak said. “He wasn’t. Now these are issues for the judge to decide.”

A transcript of the Oct. 9, 2018 grand jury proceedings obtained by NJ Advance Media shows that Assistant Prosecutor Christopher L. Desimone called only one witness – a Linden police officer – and that jurors did not get to hear Dykstra’s frantic 911 calls.

Nor did they see bodycam video of Lutty complaining loudly to police officers, at times appearing to confuse Linden with Clark and unsure of the color and type of bag Dykstra had while stating he had made a U-turn when he had not.

When asked to comment, the Union County Prosecutor’s Office last week released this statement:

“The state has complied with all ethical and legal requirements in presenting this case to the grand jury. The defendant will have his opportunity to defend himself in court before a jury, like any other person charged with a crime.”

Dykstra said the absence of a handgun should have been enough to clear him of the terroristic threat charge. He said the case should have not been presented to the grand jury.

“When a guy races 100 miles an hour to the police station, comes out screaming ‘He’s got a gun, he’s got a gun,’ – that’s a pretty big allegation,” Dykstra said. “And then you find out there’s no gun. I should never have been charged.”

Hours after he was released from police custody on May 23, Dykstra and his attorney went to Linden Municipal Court and filed a kidnapping complaint against Lutty.

“Instead of stopping the car, he locked the doors so I couldn’t get out,” the handwritten document states. “I called 911 (from) the back seat. When he heard I was calling 911 he began to drive the car erratically at a very high rate of speed and began running lights. I was afraid for my life and sure I was going to die.”

The municipal court complaint was transferred to the Union County Prosecutor’s Office as a false imprisonment charge – an indictable offense for which Lutty could possibly face jail time. The prosecutor’s office said Tuesday the case against Lutty is pending.

Also on Tuesday, a declaration surfaced from Lutty’s former employer at Linden Yellow Cab stating they stopped using him as a driver due to multiple complaints.

“During his time with my company, (Lutty) has had numerous altercations with several of my dispatchers and passengers in which (he) was the aggressor,” business owner Wayne Pohida wrote in an affidavit signed July 2018.

Pohida said some of his dispatchers “expressed concern for their safety” if they complained about Lutty.

Phone numbers in Lutty’s name have been disconnected and he could not be reached for comment.

An attorney for Lenny Dykstra filed this handwritten complaint in Linden Municipal Court last year following the former baseball star's arrest.A signed declaration from the owner of Linden Yellow Cab states the man who says he was victimized by Lenny Dykstra was the subject of complaints by dispatchers and passengers.

Anthony G. Attrino may be reached at tattrino@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyAttrino. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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