LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Scott Weiland, lead singer for the band Stone Temple Pilots, was sentenced on Monday to eight days in jail for drunken driving, a spokesman for the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office said.
Lead singer Scott Weiland performs with Stone Temple Pilots in West Hollywood, California April 7, 2008. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni
Weiland, 40, entered a plea of no contest, the functional equivalent of a guilty plea in California, to a single misdemeanor count of driving under the influence of alcohol -- his second DUI conviction in nearly four years.
The plea, stemming from his November 21 arrest following a traffic collision on a ramp to a Los Angeles freeway, was entered by Weiland’s lawyer on his behalf.
Weiland was also placed on four years’ unsupervised probation, ordered to enroll in an 18-month alcohol program and fined roughly $1,600, City Attorney’s Office spokesman Frank Mateljan said.
Weiland last month pleaded innocent to a charge of driving under the influence of drugs. Prosecutors did not make clear why the nature of the offense was changed in the final plea.
Telephone calls and e-mail queries to the band’s publicist were not immediately answered. Weiland’s lawyer also could not be reached for comment.
The performer was not at Monday’s proceedings but was ordered to be in court on May 28 for a restitution hearing, when he will be taken into custody to begin serving his jail term, Mateljan said.
It was not immediately clear how Weiland’s sentencing might affect his reunion tour with Stone Temple Pilots, who played their first show together in nearly eight years earlier this month. The band was scheduled to kick off a 65-date series of concerts in North American amphitheaters starting May 17.
Plans for that tour were announced two days after Weiland was ousted from Velvet Revolver, the all-star band he ditched Stone Temple Pilots for in 2003.
The remaining members of Velvet Revolver issued a statement on April 1 citing Weiland’s “increasingly erratic on-stage behavior and personal problems” as the reason for their split.
Weiland countered the next day that his bandmates were “discontents” who had been feuding for some time and that he already had declared the group “dead in the water.”
In July 2004, Weiland pleaded no contest to a DUI charge and was placed on three years’ probation under orders to complete a six-month drug program.
Editing by Dan Whitcomb and Peter Cooney
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