Downey Jr., Robert Gets Three-Year Prison Sent...

Robert Downey Jr. Gets Three-Year Prison Sentence

The AP
Friday, August 6, 1999

MALIBU, Calif. - Actor Robert Downey Jr. was sentenced to three years in prison yesterday for violating probation from a 1996 drug conviction.

Municipal Court Judge Lawrence Mira, who presided over Downey's original case in 1996, said he had given the actor, who earned an Oscar nomination for "Chaplin," many chances to rehabilitate himself. But, he said, Downey has manipulated doctors and psychiatrists during seven court-ordered drug rehabilitation programs.

"I don't think we have any alternative," the judge said. "We have used them all."

Downy told the judge he understood why the court's patience had run out. But he pleaded to be given another chance to rehabilitate himself at a drug-treatment center called Impact.

Explaining his addiction, Downey said: "It's like I've got a shotgun in my mouth, with my finger on the trigger, and I like the taste of the gun metal."

But Mira said his overriding concern was the safety of the public. "Is there a question that if this defendant continues to use drugs that we're going to read his name in an obituary? . . . Or see his name in some story about a horrible accident? Let's not forget why he was originally arrested," the judge said.

The actor's legal troubles date to June 1996 when he was stopped for speeding on Pacific Coast Highway and authorities found cocaine, heroin and a pistol in his vehicle. A month later he was found passed out on a child's bed in a neighbor's home. Three days later, he was arrested for leaving a recovery center.

The judge gave Downey 201 days for time served and ordered him to pay restitution of $600. Attorneys said Downey would probably serve a year behind bars.

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