Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

In the news

By TIMES WIRES
Published July 20, 2006

McCready wins, and loses

Country singer Mindy McCready was found not guilty Wednesday of driving under the influence in May 2005. But a Nashville jury found her guilty on a charge of driving with a suspended license.

The DUI case centered on a video of the field sobriety tests she took after she was stopped for speeding.

McCready, 30, who had a No. 1 hit in 1996 with Guys Do It All the Time, faces a hearing later this year on charges of violating her probation on an unrelated drug charge by failing to check in with her probation officer. Another probation violation followed when she left Tennessee in July 2005 to come to Florida without her probation officer's permission and didn't report to the officer during the month.

The latter violation got McCready arrested in Pinellas County in August after Tennessee officials issued a warrant for her.

Also while in Florida, McCready was found unconscious from a drug overdose in an Indian Rocks Beach hotel lobby. She later said she attempted suicide after learning she was pregnant by her boyfriend, who was accused of breaking into her house and beating her two days after the drunken driving arrest.

The child, Zander, is now 2 months old, and McCready is suing the boyfriend, William McKnight, for $3-million, saying the beating has hurt her music career.

More heat for Cook

A second woman claims she had an affair with the estranged husband of Christie Brinkley when she was 19, but this one was before he married the supermodel.

Samantha Cole, a 29-year-old singer, told the New York Post in Wednesday's editions that Peter Cook, now 47, proposed marriage in a last-ditch bid to win her back after she broke up with him in 1996. She refused, Cole said, and Cook became engaged to Brinkley a month later.

Also this week, 19-year-old Diana Bianchi, a former employee of Cook's, alleged the architect hired her and seduced her with lavish gifts, then attempted to woo her back with repeated notes and phone calls after she broke off the affair.

Brinkley, 52, announced last week that she and Cook, her fourth husband, had separated. The couple, who were married in 1996, have an 8-year-old daughter.

A message left for Cook at his office wasn't returned Wednesday.

Stone gathering pardon

Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee has petitioned the state Parole Board for clemency for Keith Richards on a reckless driving guilty plea 31 years ago in the town of Fordyce.

During a Rolling Stones concert in Little Rock in March, Richards asked whether anyone in the audience was from Fordyce, adding, "I used to know the chief of police there."

Richards was arrested July 5, 1975, as he, fellow Rolling Stone Ron Wood, a security guard and a fan traveled from Memphis to Dallas.

Richards was charged with reckless driving and possession of a concealed knife. He pleaded guilty to reckless driving, was fined $162.50 and the knife charge was dropped.

The Parole Board approved the clemency application on July 3 and posted the official notice Tuesday. The pardon will be forwarded to Huckabee within 30 days. When he signs it, Richards' record in Arkansas will be cleared.

[Last modified July 20, 2006, 01:57:46]