Former pop star Boy George, whose real name is George O'Dowd, enters Manhattan criminal court, in New York in this March 8, 2006, file photo. (AP Photo/Louis Lanzano)
Boy George Avoids Jail Time
Monday, June 26, 2006 11:26 AM EDT
The Associated Press
By SAMUEL MAULL
NEW YORK (AP) — Boy George won't be going back to jail after all. A judge on Monday vacated a warrant for Boy George's arrest and told the former Culture Club singer he will let him complete a nonjail sentence stemming from his arrest for cocaine possession.
Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Anthony Ferrara scolded the defendant, whose real name is George O'Dowd, for not complying with the terms of his sentence and warned, "I'm not going to give you another chance."
In March, O'Dowd, 45, pleaded guilty to third-degree false reporting of an incident. The charge followed his false report of a burglary at his Lower Manhattan apartment where police found cocaine.
Under his plea deal, O'Dowd was to enter a drug program in England and do five days of community service in Manhattan. He was also supposed to pay a $1,000 fine and a $160 surcharge, and avoid arrest for any reason during the next six months.
But the singer didn't do the community service.
"You have to do the community service," Ferrara told O'Dowd. "It's up to you whether you make it an exercise in humiliation or in humility."
"If you don't do the community service, I'll make you a promise: You're going through that door," Ferrara said, pointing toward the entrance to the jail cells.
The judge gave O'Dowd until Aug. 28 to complete the community service.
O'Dowd left the courtroom and immediately went to the probation offices to get his community service assignment. "I never minding doing the community service," he said as he walked down the hall to the office.
Defense lawyer Louis Freeman said Ferrara's annoyance was "based on a misunderstanding," that O'Dowd was trying to avoid complying with the sentence.
Freeman said the singer always intended to comply with all the terms of his conditional discharge, but he had proposed working with an HIV/AIDS charity while taking part in an outpatient drug-treatment program for himself.
O'Dowd's drug woes reportedly led to the collapse of Culture Club, which scored the hit 1980s singles "Karma Chameleon" and "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?"
Ferrara rejected and ridiculed O'Dowd's HIV/AIDS proposal.
"He'll probably be raking leaves in Central Park, or something like that," Freeman said of O'Dowd, who was referred to the Sanitation Department for possible assignment.
Freeman said his client was hoping to do the community service on five consecutive days so that he could make scheduled appearances in Europe. "He's already been threatened with lawsuits if he doesn't show," Freeman said.
When O'Dowd left the community service assignment office, he quipped, "I'm going to be teaching basketball in Harlem."
