Leif Garrett's Latest Drug Mess
Wed Jan 18, 2:53 PM ET
Leif Garrett was made for dancing. That, and getting busted.
Garrett's plunge from the heights of teen idoldom continued over the
weekend, with the former Tiger Beat centerfold jailed in Los Angeles on yet
another drug charge.
The onetime Outsiders star, now 44, was picked up by cops Saturday after
getting caught trying to catch a free ride on a downtown subway. He was
detained at the Pershing Square Red Line station when it was discovered he
didn't have a ticket. A search turned up heroin, according to officials.
Garrett is being held without bail because of an outstanding warrant for
allegedly violating his probation on a prior drug count, per jail officials.
He pleaded guilty last March to attempted possession of cocaine and was
placed on probation, says Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles
Count District Attorney's office. The warrant was issued in December,
according to Gibbons, who declined to specify the reason.
The entertainer is due in court later Wednesday.
Garrett's reps could not immediately be reached for comment, but as faithful
viewers of Behind the Music know, he's had a long history of substance-abuse
problems.
In 1999, he was arrested for cocaine and heroin possession after trying to
score drugs from an undercover cop. The case was eventually dismissed, but
not before Garrett was forced to enter rehab. It was his second
court-ordered trip: Garrett did an earlier stint in 1997 following a cocaine
bust.
Shortly after topping the charts with 1979's "I Was Made for Dancing," the
17-year-old Garrett was rung up for slamming his Porsche into another car,
an accident that left his passenger, best friend Roland Winkler, paralyzed.
The singer was alleged to have been drinking at the time.
Garrett has spent recent years variously mocking himself (see: 2003's Dickie
Roberts: Former Child Star, where he appeared opposite David Spade) and
attempting to relaunch a career (his ill-fated band Godspeed; his "Smells
Like Teen Spirit" cameo on the Melvins' 2000 album Crybaby).
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