Downey To Plead 'No Contest'
Actor Robert Downey Jr., who faced a potentially career-ending long prison term for a November Palm Springs drug arrest, will plead no contest to two drug charges and enter rehabilitation for up to a year in a deal with prosecutors, his new lawyers said Wednesday.
Under the tentative agreement with Riverside County prosecutors, reached in the last few days after Downey hired a new set of lawyers, the 36-year-old actor would avoid returning to prison, attorney Michael Adelson said.
He said Downey is expected to formally enter his no contest plea to one felony count of cocaine possession and a misdemeanor drug charge at a court hearing on July 16. Prosecutors reduced another charge of possessing Valium from a felony to a misdemeanor.
Adelson said he and fellow attorneys James Epstein and Ross Nabatoff reached the tentative deal with prosecutors during the past several days, after taking over the case from Downey's original legal team.
Adelson would not say why Downey changed legal representation or whether the switch led to the deal. Downey's publicist declined to comment.
One of Downey's former lawyers, Daniel Brookman, released a brief statement saying, "Our objective was to get Mr. Downey in rehabilitation rather than jail. After six months of legal endeavors, we achieved our goal in obtaining a plan calling for rehabilitation rather than incarceration."
Brookman added that Downey had chosen to bring in new lawyers to handle "any future legal and rehabilitation matters."
Brookman did not elaborate on the reported plea agreement or on Downey's decision to change lawyers.
Riverside County Deputy District Attorney Tammy Capone, who is prosecuting the case, was not immediately available for comment on the deal.
Downey checked himself into a drug rehabilitation center shortly after his arrest last month in a Culver City alley on suspicion of taking drugs. Prosecutors declined to file charges in that case.
He was arrested Thanksgiving weekend at Merv Griffin's Resort Hotel and Givenchy Spa. Authorities allegedly found the drugs in his hotel room after receiving an anonymous call.
The incident cost him his role on TV's "Ally McBeal," for which he won a Golden Globe earlier this year. The season ended on Monday leaving open the possibility of Downey's character returning at a later date.
The actor's legal troubles began in 1996 when he was stopped for speeding and authorities found cocaine, heroin and a pistol in his vehicle.
A month later he was found passed out in a neighbor's home and was hospitalized at a substance-abuse treatment center. Three days later, he was arrested for leaving the center.
In August 1999, Downey was sentenced to three years in prison for violating his probation by missing scheduled drug tests. He was released a year later on $5,000 bail.
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