Mischa Barton reportedly will plead no contest to DUI at her arraignment Thursday, April 10 in Beverly Hills court.
- Apr 8, 2008
AceShowbiz - Mischa Barton is planning to plead no contest, which is similar to a guilty plea, in DUI case at her arraignment Thursday, April 10 in Beverly Hills court. She has, as part of the plea, agreed to serve a three-year unsupervised probation term.
Mischa was pulled over around 2:45 A.M. on December 27, when she was driving on La Cienega Boulevard in West Hollywood, California. She was stopped by the authorities after they saw her car straddling two lanes of traffic and failing to signal for a turn. The actress was briefly jailed before then being released on 10,000 dollars bail.
On February 26, the L.A. District Attorney officially charged her with four misdemeanor criminal counts; driving under the influence, driving with a blood alcohol level of .08|percent| or higher, driving without a license, and possession of marijuana (under an ounce).
Barton however will avoid jail time, have a charge of marijuana possession to be dismissed, and another for driving with an invalid license will be reduced to a traffic violation should the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office makes the deal.
And in addition to the three-year unsupervised probation term, Barton will also be sentenced to a three-month alcohol-education class, and ordered to pay a fine of approximately $1,700. A spokeswoman for the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office declined to comment on the case, but a source close to Barton told E! News Monday, April 7, "That has always been the plan, but we don't know exactly how the deal will go down."
The terms of the plea deal, which is considered a common arrangement for first-time offenders, are all being negotiated by Barton's lawyer Anthony V. Salerno and expected to be signed off by the court on Thursday.
On January 10, Barton broke her silence on the DUI arrest, spoke to Ryan Seacrest during his L.A. radio show, telling him she "obviously 100 percent responsible" for her actions in her DUI arrest. "I'm really disappointed in myself. I don't know what to say about it except I'm not perfect. I just don't ever intend to do something this stupid again," so she said at that time.
