Hootie is officially avoiding jail time…as long as he doesn’t get in any more trouble.
Darius Rucker resolved a nearly year-and-a-half long legal ordeal when he pleaded no contest last week to one count of simple possession of a controlled substance, a charge resulting from his arrest in Williamson County, Tennessee earlier this year.
It all started back in February 2023 when the country singer and frontman for Hootie & the Blowfish was pulled over for an expired registration by police, who also found some weed and mushrooms in his car.
But he wasn’t arrested at the time and the officer let him go on his way.
It wasn’t until a year later that Darius told People that he got a call from a friend at the police station:
“It was so awesome. I mean, I looked back at that and I was like, ‘I got stopped by a police officer and I had a little bit of pot, and I think a little bit of some mushrooms or something in the car, and he let me go.’
And a year later I got a phone call from a buddy that said, ‘I think I just saw an arrest warrant for you.’ It shocked me.”
Rucker admits that he thought nothing else of it at the time, until hearing that there was a warrant out for his arrest. And the delay in taking him to custody made him think that he’d done something to upset somebody in the police department – or, they just wanted to make an example out of a big name:
“My friends who were in the police department were like, ‘Have you pissed somebody off up here? Because this is crazy that they’re doing this a year later.
But I think somebody wanted to make an example out of me, and they did. And I’m handling it with my lawyers, and paying the price, and we’ll move on with our lives.”
Regardless of the reason, Rucker turned himself in on the warrant earlier this year and was charged with two counts of simple possession/casual exchange of a controlled substance, and to add insult to injury, he was also charged for the expired registration (which just seems petty on the officer’s part).
The drug charges were Class A misdemeanors in Tennessee, with a maximum penalty of up to 11 months and 29 days in jail.
But Rucker won’t be spending any time behind bars after working out a plea deal that would allow him to plead no contest to one charge of simple possession and being sentenced to 11 months and 29 days on probation.
In exchange for the plea to the drug charge, the other two charges were dismissed, and as long as Rucker successfully completes his probation, his record will then be expunged.
Seems like a fair resolution, and no doubt Hootie’s happy to have this one behind him.
