Tommy Lee Really Got a Lift to Concert, and City Isn’t Pleased

Faced with a Friday evening trek from Hollywood to Irvine to attend a Nine Inch Nails concert, bad boy rocker Tommy Lee didn’t have to handle the rush-hour traffic on the roadways.

In true rock star fashion, he was picked up in a helicopter.

The chopper landed July 7 in the 1800 block of Wattles Drive, outside a residence in the Hollywood Hills -- a strategy that put the Motley Crue drummer and ex-husband of Pamela Anderson on the wrong side of Los Angeles City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo.

On Monday, Delgadillo said he had filed criminal charges against the pilot of the helicopter.

Lee, who is infamous for a life of sex, drugs, rock ‘n’ roll and police run-ins, but has lately tried to clean up his image with a highly publicized return to college, is not facing any charges for the incident.

Neither he nor his representatives could be reached for comment.

Although helicopters buzzing across a hazy sky are a familiar sight above Los Angeles, officials say it is highly unusual, illegal and dangerous to land one on a public street. In the city of Los Angeles, helicopters are allowed to take off and land only at airports and, with permission, at helipads.

City officials said the only other incident they could recall of a celebrity landing on a public street happened decades ago, when neighbors complained to the West Los Angeles police substation about helicopter visits to Frank Sinatra’s home. Officials couldn’t recall what, if any, punishment was meted out to the singer or his pilots.

This isn’t Lee’s first brush with chopper trouble. In 2004, the Los Angeles fire marshal forbade Motley Crue from landing their “Red, White & Crue” helicopter at the Hollywood Palladium for a concert, according to a statement from a public relations spokeswoman. Instead, the band arrived in a hearse.

The pilot in the latest incident, David Keith Martz, 49, was charged with one count of reckless operation of an aircraft, one count of landing an aircraft on a public road and one count of landing an aircraft without a permit. He couldn’t be located for comment. Each charge carries a maximum penalty of a $1,000 fine or six months in jail.

Officials said the LAPD’s Air Support Division, alerted by calls, spotted the chopper hovering above the home and tried to contact the pilot without success. Officers watched as the pilot landed on the street and went into the house, they said.

Other officers went to the house and told Martz that he had illegally landed on a public roadway, according to the city attorney.

Martz, Lee and two other passengers then got in the helicopter and flew south, officials said. Two hours later, authorities said, the party returned and landed again at the residence.

Delgadillo’s office alleges that Martz landed the second time even after authorities specifically told him not to do so.

“The public perception is yeah, if I had enough money I could just go here and there in my helicopter. But it really doesn’t do you any good, because you can only go from airport to airport,” said Larry Harris, a senior pilot for the Los Angeles Fire Department.