Pubdate: Sun, 15 Jul 2001
Source: New York Post (NY)
Copyright: 2001 N.Y.P. Holdings, Inc.
Contact:  http://nypostonline.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/296

DOWNEY DEAL: NO JAIL TIME

LOS ANGELES - Robert Downey Jr. will plead no contest tomorrow to drug 
charges in a plea bargain that will allow him to continue live-in drug 
treatment rather than face jail time.

Downey, 36, who was nominated for an Emmy for his role on the television 
comedy "Ally McBeal," will appear in court in Indio, Calif., on charges 
related to his Nov. 25 arrest in Palm Springs for cocaine use, his lawyers 
confirmed.

Prosecutors and Downey's lawyers struck a deal last month, under which the 
actor is expected to be sentenced to at least a year in the live- in 
drug-treatment program and three years' probation.

Downey will plead no contest to a felony count of cocaine possession and a 
misdemeanor count of being under the influence of the drug, his lawyers 
have said.

Downey has been in a residential drug-rehabilitation program since a second 
arrest, an April incident in the Los Angeles suburb of Culver City. Police 
arrested Downey in a back alley for suspected drug use, and he tested 
positive for cocaine, but prosecutors decided not to bring charges.

Attorney James Epstein said Downey had been making "excellent" progress in 
the drug-treatment program since then. Downey's earlier arrest at the Merv 
Griffin resort in Palm Springs came about three months after he was freed 
from a one-year prison stay in California and began a comeback on "Ally 
McBeal" as Calista Flockhart's love interest.

His legal troubles cost him a role in the summer movie romance "America's 
Sweethearts," starring Julia Roberts.

Post Wire Services
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