Posted on 04/21/2005 12:37:38 PM PDT by Salo
NAPLES, Fla. (AP) - Rush's Alex Lifeson and his son accepted plea agreements Thursday and will not go to jail for a New Year's Eve 2003 altercation with Collier County sheriff's deputies.
Lifeson, whose real surname is Zivojinovich, and his 34-year-old son, Justin, will serve 12 months probation and pay court costs as part of the agreement. The charges against them were reduced to misdemeanors from felonies that could have resulted in the men going to prison.
The agreement calls for each to plead to a single misdemeanor charge of resisting arrest without violence. Adjudication is being withheld, meaning there will not be a formal conviction on their records if probation is successfully completed.
"Today closes a difficult and painful period in the lives of my family, my friends and myself," Lifeson said in a statement released Thursday. "But the sun is shining and it feels good."
The father and son were at a bash at the Ritz-Carlton hotel ringing in 2004 when the altercation with deputies occurred.
Lifeson's son and his friends agitated hotel security when they got up on a platform when the house band was taking a break. Security called deputies who ended up escorting Justin out of the hotel.
Lifeson tried to intervene, deputies said. They accused Rush's founding member of pushing a female deputy down a stairwell and spitting in another deputy's face.
Lifeson suffered a broken nose and other injuries in the scuffle.
Judge Charles T. Carlton ruled that this act was not enough for the third-degree resisting arrest with violence charge to stand.
Rush's hits have included Tom Sawyer, Limelight and The Spirit of Radio since the Toronto trio's first album debuted in 1974.
ping.
Owl_Eagle
(If what I just wrote makes you sad or angry,
Rock and Roll Ping.
Wrong Rush. This is Rush the band, not the talk show host.
"And the men who hold high places
Must be the ones to start..." to keep me and my son out of jail.
D'ya think?
Man what a shame, first he goes deaf, then the pill addiction now this. Liberals are going to rip Rush a new one.
Owl_Eagle
(If what I just wrote makes you sad or angry,
I never knew Rush had a life partner.
If Rush does 12 months probation are they still going to let him do his radio show?
Thanks for the ping. You know, Alex, in videos and concert footage I've seen of RUSH, doesn't come across to me as a person that spits in people's faces and pushes lady cops down stairs.
Still love their music!
My thoughts exactly. The media always tries to smear Rush by pointing out his foibles.
Rush, in its day, was a great band. Their live album, "All the World's a Stage", is one of my favorites. Give it a listen. (They were at their peak then; their music got pretty boring afterwards.)
I didn't even know Rush had a son.
Doubt that he knows it, either. /sarcasm
Rush's "A Passage To Bangkok" from 1976 is the best ode to dope, ever.
A Passage To Bangkok
Our first stop is in bogota
To check columbian fields
The natives smile and pass along
A sample of their yield
Sweet jamaican pipe dreams
Golden acapulco nights
Then morocco, and the east,
Fly by morning light
We’re on the train to bangkok
Aboard the thailand express
We’ll hit the stops along the way
We only stop for the best
Wreathed in smoke in lebanon
We burn the midnight oil
The fragrance of afghanistan
Rewards a long day’s toil pulling into katmandu
Smoke rings fill the air
Perfumed by a nepal night
The express gets you there
Too bad, Alex. Have Geddy and Neil managed to stay out of trouble?
"Give the jury direction, based on the evidence..."
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