Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora was formally charged with DUI on Tuesday, the Orange County, Calif., District Attorney’s office said today.
Sambora avoided a misdemeanor child endangerment count, but if convicted faces a maximum penalty of six months in jail. His arraignment is set for May 7.
The Laguna Beach Police had recommended that Sambora be charged with misdemeanor child endangerment, but prosecutors declined to pursue that charge.
The 48-year-old rocker was arrested in Laguna Beach on March 25 after police spotted him driving unsteadily in a Hummer H2. His breath smelled of alcohol, and his blood alcohol level was above the California legal limit of .08 at .13.
In the car was Sambora’s girlfriend, Jenn Mallini, his 10-year-old daughter, Ava — whose mother is Sambora’s ex-wife Heather Locklear — and her teenage cousin.
Last year, Sambora entered Utah’s Cirque Lodge center at the same time as starlet Lindsay Lohan to help battle his addiction to booze.
He said he needed help after a string of problems in his life including his divorce from Locklear all became too much.
Sambora told People magazine: “I got divorced from Heather Locklear, I was going through a custody battle, I was having alcohol addiction problems, my dad was dying “It was a gang tackle from hell, basically. And crawling out of that wreckage was a very triumphant victory.”
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