David Cassidy gets probation, rehab for DUI conviction

david-cassidyLos Angeles (CNN) — Former teen idol David Cassidy must spend the next five years on probation after pleading no contest to a drunken driving charge in Los Angeles on Monday.

A judge also ordered Cassidy, 63, to spend 90 days in alcohol rehab, but since he’s been in a residential program since his arrest in January he will be able to check out soon and resume his entertainment career, his manager said,

In fact, the former “Partridge Family” singer has gigs booked starting in North Carolina next month.

Cassidy was arrested after a California Highway Patrol officer stopped him for making an illegal turn at a red light near the Los Angeles International Airport in January.

The singer-actor blew .19 — twice the legal level — on an alcohol test administered by the officer who stopped his rented Chevrolet Impala, according to a California Highway Patrol statement.

It was his second DUI arrest in six months and third since 2011.

‘Partridge Family’ dispute led to Cassidy drinking relapse

His manager told CNN several days after his latest arrest that Cassidy’s drinking was the result of stressful questioning he had just undergone by lawyers about a legal dispute regarding “Partridge Family” profits.

“David just completed a stint in rehab and was doing very well in sobriety,” manager Jo-Ann Geffen said.

“He was in Los Angeles to attend depositions by Sony Pictures Television, respondents in a lawsuit filed by Cassidy in 2011 over what he claims are monies long due him from ‘Partridge Family’ merchandise, home video, etc.,” she said. “After attending his and his manager’s depositions, it appears as if the pressure led to a brief relapse.”

On the TV series, Cassidy played the eldest of five children of a widowed mother (Shirley Jones, who was then Cassidy’s real-life stepmother).

The family, all musicians, traveled to gigs in a brightly repainted school bus. When the show was canceled after four seasons, Cassidy launched his own pop music career, filling concert halls with screaming teenage girls attracted to such hits as “I Think I Love You.” Article Link CNN…

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