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NEWS : STORIES
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04.22.2008 6:10 PM EDT
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Bon Jovi's Richie Sambora Plea-Bargains DUI; Gets Probation, Fine: Report
Guitarist avoids charge of child-endangerment; daughter was in car at time of arrest.
by
MTV News staff
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Richie Sambora in his mugshot
(Photo:
Laguna Beach Police Department
)
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Just hours after Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora was officially charged with two misdemeanor counts of DUI, he plea-bargained the case, according to
TMZ.
Sambora pleaded no contest to a charge of driving with a blood-alcohol level of .08 or higher, the site reported (Sambora's blood-alcohol level at the time of his arrest was reportedly .13). Another charge of driving under the influence was dropped.
Sambora, 48, will pay around $1,600, including a $390 fine and penalties, according to the site. He will be placed on three years' "informal probation" and will be required to attend an alcohol education course. He cannot drink or abuse drugs during his probation.
Sambora avoided a charge of child endangerment, stemming from his March 25 arrest in Laguna Beach, California. At the time he was pulled over, Sambora's girlfriend and two young girls — one of them Ava, his 10-year-old daughter with Heather Locklear — were in the car.
Sambora's problems with alcohol led him to enter a 30-day rehabilitation facility in Los Angeles last spring.
The guitarist, who recently split with actress Denise Richards, had ended his marriage to Locklear last April — right on the heels of the death of his father, who'd succumbed to lung cancer.
Not long after he entered treatment last June (his second rehab stint in a year), Sambora appeared on the "Today" show to talk about his problems with alcohol. "I was just drinking too much and I needed to get my life together," he said during the interview. "I'm still in therapy and stuff like that, but it's good. I'm great. I feel fine."
This report is provided by MTV News
 
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