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Posted on 07/30/2007 7:42:53 PM PDT by LdSentinal
Al Gore III agrees to enter a nine-month drug treatment program after pleading guilty to prescription drug and marijuana possession charges in Orange County.
LAGUNA NIGUEL -- The son of former Vice President Al Gore pleaded guilty today to felony and misdemeanor drug possession charges stemming from his arrest in Orange County after he was caught driving more than 100 mph in a Toyota Prius.
Albert Arnold Gore III entered his plea to prescription drug and marijuana possession charges before Orange County Superior Court Judge Pamela Iles.
Gore agreed to enter a nine-month drug treatment program, which he must complete by Feb. 7, according to Farrah Emami of the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.
Eighteen months from now, a judge will review the case, and if Gore has adhered to all requirements, which include drug testing, the charges will be dismissed, Emami said.
Gore, who had been free on $20,000 bail, was charged July 20 with two felony counts of possession of a controlled substance -- the prescription drugs Adderall and Vicodin he allegedly possessed without a prescription -- two misdemeanor counts of possessing a controlled substance without a prescription - - Xanax and Valium -- and a misdemeanor charge of possession of marijuana.
He was also charged with an infraction for driving at a speed greater than 100 mph, Schroeder said.
It was not immediately clear if Gore has already enrolled in the drug treatment program. Defense attorney Al Stokke could not be reached for immediate comment.
Had he not been eligible for the drug-treatment program, he could have faced up to three years and eight months in prison, prosecutors said earlier.
Gwen Vieau of the Superior Court said the program Gore agreed to complete is “even more stringent” than the typical programs, but she said court records on the case was sealed.
Gore was driving a blue Toyota Prius south on the San Diego (5) Freeway about 2:15 a.m. July 4 when a sheriff’s deputy stopped him at the Crown Valley Parkway exit, said sheriff’s spokesman Jim Amormino.
The deputy smelled marijuana and searched the car, finding less than an ounce of marijuana, but also the prescription drugs Valium, Xanax, Vicodin, Soma and Adderall, which is used to treat attention deficit disorder.
The Harvard graduate said he did not have a prescription for the drugs and admitted smoking marijuana shortly before being stopped, Amormino said.
However, authorities did not book him on suspicion of DUI because they decided Gore was not “impaired” by the marijuana, he said.
Gore was arrested on suspicion of drug possession and speeding and posted the bail.
The former vice president said later that the arrest was being dealt with as a private family matter. He expressed love and support for his son. Susan Schroeder of the Orange County District Attorney’s Office said Gore would not qualify to enroll in the program again within five years. The son of the former vice president was charged with marijuana possession in Maryland in 2003 after police stopped him driving without his vehicle’s headlights on. In February 2004 he entered a substance abuse program as part of a plea agreement. Gore was ticketed for reckless driving by North Carolina police in August 2000 for allegedly driving 94 mph, and in September 2002, military police arrested him on suspicion of drunken driving near a military base in Virginia.
Gore, the youngest of four children, graduated from Harvard in 2005 and works as an associate publisher of Good magazine, a startup published in Los Angeles. In April 1989, he nearly died in a car accident in Maryland.
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“I’m not making excuses for him, but this is the son who got hit by a car after a Baltimore Orioles game when he was a teen, and got to see how his Dad was more wrapped up in politics at the time than hos own son’s well being.”
This is so true. It must be hard for a seven year old to come to grips with that fact.
One for Liberals and Hollywood elite and one for the rest of America.
If it was my son caught driving and endangering lives he would do his drug rehab in county jail.
Just the opinion of a red state wannabe.
The rest of us peons would be boned.
I was telling someone about the ‘hot’ car Gore’s sister was driving when she bailed him out. Could not remember what kind of car it was. Can anyone help me out on a link to that part of the story? Tried searching on FR but couldn’t find.
You can see it in this video. It appears in my previous post.
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