The Orange County district attorney’s office issued a press release this morning that wants to make one thing clear about former NBA superstar freak Dennis “The Worm” Rodman’s guilty plea to driving drunk in January.
The boldface is the OCDA’s …
March 13, 2018
MEDIA ADVISORY
WHO: Former NBA star Dennis Keith Rodman, 56, Newport Beach
WHAT: Pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count of driving under the influence and one misdemeanor count of driving under the influence with a blood alcohol content of .08 percent or more. Rodman accepted a court-offered sentence of three years of informal probation, $390 in fines, and a mandatory 9-month first offender alcohol treatment program. At the defendant’s probation violation hearing yesterday for case #16CM10636, Rodman was sentenced to 90 days in county jail stayed pending completion of the terms of his sentence in case #18HM01365.
WHEN: Yesterday, March 12, 2018
WHERE: Department H-2, Harbor Justice Center, Newport Beach
Prosecutor: Senior Deputy District Attorney Brett Brian, Special Prosecutions Unit
Court-offered sentence is likely bolded to avoid a mistake reporters such as yours truly has done in the past. That is, when a defendant accepts a plea offer, it is reported as cutting a deal with prosecutors rather than the judge.
Newport Beach cops popped Rodman for driving under the influence just after 11:10 p.m. Jan. 13, when the Hall of Famer was pulled over for swerving in the 4500 block of West Coast Highway (near Hoag Hospital hill). Police couldn’t miss the ride, and not solely because a 6-foot-8, 235-pound “Freak” was behind the wheel. Loud music was blaring from its speakers.
The first officer who made contact noticed that Rodman reeked of booze. He failed a field sobriety test, blew into a Breathalyzer over an .08 percent blood alcohol content (BAC)—the California legal limit—and was arrested and jailed through the following morning before being released.
Because The Worm was already on three years’ probation for causing a July 2016 wrong way crash on the 5 freeway near Main Street, he could have been forced by the court to serve out all or some of his original two-year prison sentence.
That likely explains why the OCDA wants it made clear that Rodman made his deal with the court, not prosecutors, who may be in no mood given the Worm’s long list of local minor crimes and misdemeanors that we ran down in “Dennis Rodman Charged with Misdemeanor Drunken Driving. Again.”
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.