Celebrity Court

Kiefer Sutherland pled no contest yesterday driving with a blood-alcohol level above .08. In exchange for the plea, the prosecution dropped an additional charge of driving under the influence.  He was arrested in late September.

Sutherland will be sentenced on December 21st, where he is expected to receive 48 days in jail. He is receiving 30 days for the new DUI and an additional 18 days because the new arrest violated his previous probation.

According to reports, Sutherland’s biggest concern was that he did not want his jail time to interfere with the shooting schedule of his television show 24. With the plea, he is expected to be permitted to serve part of his sentence during the show’s winter hiatus and the remaining days will need to be be served prior to next summer.

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Chicago Bears linebacker Lance Briggs pleaded guilty yesterday to leaving the scene of an accident today in Skokie. As I told you back in August, Lance’s brand-new Lamborghini Murcielago, valued at over $300,000, was found at the side of a highway in Chicago, badly damaged.

In exchange for his guilty plea, Lance received one year supervision, 15 days of community service and a $485 fine.  A sentence of supervision is sort of like “probation-lite” in that if he completes the year supervision without incident, it will not be considered a conviction.  As part of his community service, Lance will have to teach school children about safe driving habits. Hopefully Lance will be able to keep on the straight and narrow and will not become a problem player like the Bears had in Tank Johnson.

The judge gave that specific community service because of the fact the children look up to Lance because he is an NFL player. Hopefuly Lance will receive a pamphlet or something to help him with the teaching, because obviously safe driving is not his strong suit. Lance does have a lot of experience working with children with his foundation, Briggs 4 Kidz.

It was probably a good idea for Lance to plead guilty and get this behind him. The Chicago Bears have gotten off to a rough start this season, in large part to the tremendous amount of injuries on the defense, including Lance. He did not practice again this week due to a hamstring injury and did not play in the last game against the Lions.

The Bears play the undefeated Green Bay Packers this Sunday night in Green Bay.

Rapper Snoop Dogg pleaded guilty yesterday to one count of felony possession of a deadly weapon. He was arrested at an airport when he he was found to have a collapsible baton in his carry-on luggage.

As part of the plea agreement, Snoop Dogg will avoid jail time, but must serve 160 hours of community service and make a $10,000 contribution to charity.

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Snoop Dogg, weapons charges

As expected, Michael Vick pleaded guilty to one count of “conspiracy to travel in interstate commerce in aid of unlawful activities and to sponsor a dog in an animal fighting venture.” He previously admitted to financing “Bad Newz Kennels,” although he denied making money from gambling on dog fights. He also admitted that “collective efforts” of him and two other people resulted in the death of six or more dogs.

Although the plea agreement was for a recommended sentence of 12-18 months, the judge will have the final say on the sentence and will hand it down in December. This means that the judge could end up giving Vick a lighter sentence, especially if his actions between now and the sentencing date indicate he truly is on the path to redemption. The judge could also possibly give a higher sentence, but that is not likely.

On Monday, following his plea, Vick said, “dogfighting is a terrible thing.” He also said that he has “found Jesus” through this experience and has time to reflect and wants to redeem himself.

For the video of Vick’s apology, click here. What I found interesting was that on two separate occasions he said that he would not point the finger at anyone else and would take responsibility for his actions. He was likely taking some jabs at his co-conspirators who agreed to give up Vick to investigators. I also thought it was interesting that Vick, although claiming to be humble and turned over to God, continued to refer to himself in the third person.

What do you think about Vick’s apology? Do you think that it was genuine?

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Michael Vick, dogfighting, federal charges

Lindsay Lohan entered into a plea agreement with the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office, pleading no contest to two misdemeanor counts of DUI and one count of reckless driving in exchange a sentence of four days in jail.

The judge then credited her one day time served from her second arrest and took away two of the days in jail in exchange for 10 hours of community service. That leaves Lohan with one day to spend in jail. She will also have to serve three years of probation. Any miscues while on probation will likely result in jail time.

Lohan also must refrain from using controlled substances and not “associate with people with controlled substances.” In order to comply with that requirement of probation, I think that Lindsay better find some new friends.

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Lindsay Lohan, DUI, controlled substances, guilty plea