Dourdan Cops to Drug Felonies, Avoids Jail
For Gary Dourdan, two out of three ain’t bad. Of course, it’s not really all that good, either…
The recently killed-off CSI player pleaded guilty to two of his three counts of felony drug possession in Indio, Calif., this morning, stemming from his early morning bust in Palm Springs last month.
The actor copped to one count each of cocaine and Ecstasy possession during today’s arraignment; a third charge of heroin possession was dismissed.
Although he could have faced up to three years and eight months behind bars, in exchange for his plea Dourdan will not serve any time but instead has until Nov. 20, 2009, to complete a series of drug-education courses as part of the court’s diversion program.
“As a result of today’s proceedings, Gary has been given diversion,” his attorney, Shawn Chapman Holley, said outside the courthouse. “He very much regrets what happened, and he’s very embarrassed by what occurred, but he’s looking forward to moving on and getting back to work.
“He is very grateful to the court for being understanding and giving him an opportunity to resolve the issue and move forward.”
Should Dourdan successfully complete the program, his convictions may be dismissed.
“Gary was given diversion, which means that both charges will be dismissed as soon as he completes 30 hours of classes,” Holley told News.
Riverside District Attorney spokeswoman Ingrid Wyatt also told News that the actor will be required to pay a small fee as part of his restitution.
Dourdan was present for the morning hearing, though he did not speak to reporters on his way in or out of the courtroom. He did, however, don a navy blue suit for the occasion and flashed a peace sign on his way out of the building and into his Lincoln Town Car.
The 41-year-old was busted on April 28, when cops found his car parked on the wrong side of the street and the actor asleep at the wheel. A search of his vehicle yielded the drugs and after being released on $5,000 bail, the actor initially claimed the drugs weren’t his and said he was “embarrassed” over the situation.
Dourdan’s Warrick Brown was slain on the CSI season finale last week. The actor opted not to return for a new season after failing to reach a new contract with producers.
CSI’s Gary Dourdan avoids jail time
On Monday, April 28, CSI star Gary Dourdan was arrested in Palm Springs, California. He was asleep in his car and when a police officer approached, he found Dourdan disoriented. The actor was arrested after the cop found cocaine, heroin, Ecstacy, miscellaneous prescription drugs and paraphernalia in the car. Despite pleading guilty to drug possession today, Dourdan will not have to do any jail time. In fact, in the deal his lawyer struck with prosecutors, Gary will get treatment for his drug problems. Basically, he lucked out.
“Once Gary completes 30 hours of a diversion program, his case will be entirely dismissed,” said his lawyer, Shawn Chapman Holley, in a statement to The Associated Press. Dourdan won’t have to do any time in a drug rehab facility or behind bars, so all things considered, he’s very, very fortunate. He could have faced up to three years or more in jail .
Gary has already departed CSI, and in the season finale, his character was seemingly killed in a point blank shooting. However, when Jorja Fox returns for the fall premiere, Dourdan is reportedly in the show. And not as a ghost. So, now that he won’t be doing time, he’ll have time to film scenes for CSI and, presumably, wrap up the unfinished business of the CSI crew exposing the corrupt under sheriff.
The Wire: Took
(S05E07) “They don’t teach it in law school.” - Pearlman
McNulty finally got his wish. After weeks of lies, Carcetti caved to the potential implications of a serial killer running amuck. For a man with aspirations to run for governor of Maryland, that can’t happen. So Jimmy’s case finally became a true red ball and the floodgates opened. Not even McNulty could have expected the insanity that came along with the department’s complete cooperation. As it stands right now, McNulty can have anything or anyone he wants. While he and Lester had been feverishly awaiting this moment, it quickly turned into exactly what they didn’t need.
Think about it. They’re running one of the biggest scams in the history of the Baltimore Police Department, and now everyone from top to bottom is involved. With that many eyes assisting the investigation of the “case,” someone has to notice something. A mistake in one of Jimmy’s doctored case files? The discovery of Lester’s dummy wires? A fresh report from the medical examiner on one of the dead homeless victims? Or maybe the discovery of Larry in that Virgina community shelter? Surely someone there must have seen those pictures of Larry posted somewhere. As Scott put it, “this case has legs,” and legs means national coverage.
So… after placing the call (and sending the picture of Larry) to Templeton using a voice modulator, things happened fast for Jimmy and Lester. The Sun and the B.P.D. rallied their troops to ensure that this thing is covered and policed from all angles and then Phelan signed off on Jimmy’s cell phone picture intercept tap. I loved the way that initial scene was set up though. I had to watch it a few times, but here’s how it worked: Jimmy called Templeton through the voice modulator I mentioned and it was attached to Marlo’s cell phone number. However, the outgoing trace signature was attached to a cell phone that Sydnor had down by the river. So when the call came through, Holley saw Marlo’s number on the tap and Lester’s re-routing of the number sent the signal to the phone Sydnor had. When the phone company ran the trap and trace, all Sydnor had to do was drop the phone into a magnetic bag, stuff it in his pocket, and walk away. As a result, the cops had to go about grabbing anyone (read: everyone) with a cell phone in that area. Scenes like that are so expertly laid out and I love that about The Wire.
Now I know I ask it every week, but here I go again: if this all plays out perfectly and Lester gets everything he needs to bust Marlo, is he really going to be able to attribute all this knowledge to an informant? I just don’t see it happening. It’s so much info and some of this has to be inadmissible right? How is he going to justify knowledge of the “clock code” without referencing the intercepted cell phone pictures? Speaking of which, they have a code to crack? Why didn’t either Jimmy or Lester call Pryzbylewski? He’s the master of cracking that stuff! (Remember season one? All you need to do is “jump the 5.”)
OK, moving on to Clay Davis. I called it. He walked and as guilty as he is… it’s probably justifiable. Bond’s case just didn’t have enough to nail him down. With the help of Billy Murphy (a sort of Johnnie Cochran/Jackie Chiles hybrid), Clay put on quite a show. The bottom line? Sure, his basketball charity may take in ten grand and the next day, Clay’s personal bank account might show a ten grand deposit. But there’s really no way to prove that he didn’t take that money and buy what was needed for the charity and then give the rest of it away to needy constituents. Legal? Probably not, but it makes him sound like one hell of a good man and created enough reasonable doubt. How did the jury vote though? Was it unanimously not guilty or was it hung? Looks like the only way to get him now requires bringing out that federal loan falsification charge and Bond definitely doesn’t want to do that. How else are you going to get Clay though?
A few “oh shiiiiiiiiiit” moments…
- Omar shot Savino! At point blank range! Unprovoked! Omar does not kill people like that. He may shoot them in the leg or if need be in self-defense he’ll pull the trigger, but Omar is not in the business of just killing people. You can argue that it’s based on revenge for Butchie, but Savino didn’t have a hand in that. On the flip-side, when Omar killed Stinkum, it was because Stinkum had a role in Brandon’s death. For those that have no idea who Savino is, he used to be Barksdale muscle alongside Wee-Bey, Stinkum, and Bird before going to jail. Now he’s running a stash house for Marlo. Bottom line? Omar has reached a breaking point. The man is hobbling around on a crutch and still scaring the crap out of people. I love how he’s just destroying Marlo’s drugs and money.
- Michael wasn’t molested by Bug’s father. Well… he might have been. But the case file that Bunk dug up said the results were inconclusive. I’m guessing young Michael was just as talkative with the social worker years ago as he was with Bunk in the interrogation room in this episode. Damn near mute.
- Gus did catch Scott in a lie! Last week, when he fed him that correction about Scott’s seafood allergy lady, it was bogus. But since Scott didn’t know that and didn’t bother to look into it, he lied and said he did. Gotcha. As Gus points out, it’s not that uncommon for a reporter to duck a correction… but it does mean that Scott is open to lying. Gus actually came out and said for the first time, “I don’t trust him.” While Gus and Rebecca are both on to him, especially with all the embellishments and exaggerations that Scott made during his homeless piece, it’ll be interesting to see if either Klebanow or Whiting continue to take Scott’s writing as gospel.
I also wanted to talk about Kima. One of my favorite ongoing stories in this show has been how she’s slowly transforming into the female version of McNulty. It pretty much came full circle in this episode. In the past, she cheated on Cheryl (with Jimmy’s help) and now she’s in the same situation he was way back in season one. Elijah is visiting for one night and she has no kiddie furniture. Cue a nice throwback as we watched Kima attempt to assemble something from IKEA with a glass of wine, just as Jimmy did all those years ago with a bottle of Jameson. Just really well done.
And speaking of McNulty, what are your thoughts on his new Robin Hood mantra? He has all this manpower and money at his disposal and no use for it, so I suppose it’s better than nothing and it is allowing actual police work to get done. You could see how Bunk was starting to get to McNulty as he was feeling guilty about the whole situation. I loved how it got all the way to Crutchfield and he knew the process without Jimmy saying anything. Then he called Jimmy “boss” as if he were Landsman. Hilarious.
More thoughts…
- How great was that final scene with Kima as she tried to put Elijah to sleep? Goodnight moon. Goodnight stars. Goodnight Po Po, fiends, hoppers, hustlers, and scammers. Police work — it’s all she knows.
- Awesome to see Day-Day Price again! He was hilarious on the stand when Bond questioned him.
- Anyone else think that Tommy’s gubernatorial campaign platform of homelessness is a little weak? It’s sad to say, but once McNulty’s “killer” is gone, I don’t think people are going to care as much and that kills any steam Carcetti had.
- “You got the right Allen wrench?” Hilarious.
- I think my favorite moment of the episode was when Jimmy mentioned to Lester that Jay wanted him to go to Quantico to get an FBI profile for the killer. Lester’s response? “You might learn something about yourself!”
- Looks like Bubbles has found an outlet for his frustrations in Fletcher. I’m guessing Fletch will eventually get him to open up about Sherrod’s death.
- Richard Belzer! He only had a few lines and no one, other than the bartender, acknowledged him. So, the big question? Was he supposed to be just some guy? Or was he supposed to be Munch? Because if so, that would create a nice little connection with Homicide. Plus it would be about the millionth show that Belzer has portrayed that role on. Also of note? The character of John Munch was based on the real life Jay Landsman, who just so happened to also be in the bar. Landsman plays Lt. Dennis Mello, whom Gus sat done and spoke with. (Not to be confused with Delaney Williams, who plays Jay Landsman on The Wire. Got it?)
- Not enough Carver this season.
Only three episodes left. Wow. Knowing that, something has to go wrong because I refuse to believe that this mess Jimmy has created can have a happy ending. Either him or Scott are gonna get nailed and from there, it falls apart for whoever’s still standing. Jimmy’s gonna wish he never came back to the major crimes detail at the end of last season.
Early Release Was A Surprise To Nicole Richie
Early Release Was A Surprise To Nicole Richie
While the Los Angeles County Jail is notorious for cutting celebrities a break, Nicole Richie was “pleasantly surprised” to get released just 82 minutes after she was booked.
Attorney Shawn Chapman Holley said, “Nicole was aware that most people with sentences similar to hers are booked and released in a matter of hours and she was hoping to be treated like everyone else. Nevertheless, she was prepared to serve her entire four-day sentence had the Sheriff’s Department required her to do so.”
The Simple Life babe caught her break due to overcrowding in the jail system. According to Kerri Webb (what happened to Steve Whitmore?) “This is standard procedure for nonviolent offenders.”
Instead of pining away in jail, Nicole will serve a three-year probation term, enroll in an alcohol education program, and pay a $2048 fine. In other words, as long as she isn’t arrested anytime soon, she’s golden. And even Nicole isn’t dumb enough to drink now that she’s five months along in her pregnancy… we hope.