Sizemore Given a Reprieve -- Rehab Instead of Prison
Actor Tom Sizemore’s life over the last three turbulent years has played out like a bad B-movie: convicted batterer of his ex-girlfriend, “Hollywood Madam” Heidi Fleiss; repeat drug offender; and even star of his own sex video on the Internet.
But on Thursday, the co-star of such hit films as “Saving Private Ryan” and “Black Hawk Down,” whose career has spiraled out of control because of his legal and drug issues, showed up at the Los Angeles Airport Courthouse for a probation violation hearing in an entirely different role: beaming father of newborn twin sons.
The boys, Jagger and Jaedon, were born July 23 to Sizemore’s ex-girlfriend, Janelle McIntire.
Outside court, Sizemore cradled the babies in his burly arms, kissing them on the forehead as news cameras recorded the moment.
Sizemore had another reason to be smiling. Minutes earlier, a judge had given the actor a legal reprieve.
Instead of sending him to state prison for up to three years, which she seemed inclined to do earlier this summer after Sizemore admitted violating numerous drug tests while on probation for methamphetamine possession, Superior Court Judge Paula Adele Mabrey instead ordered the actor to return to a live-in drug rehabilitation center in Pasadena for 30 days and allowed him to leave the facility to pursue acting jobs.
“I just want to stay healthy one day at a time and get back to work and take care of my family,” said Sizemore, 43, as the babies yawned in their stroller near his feet. He added that having children “feels great” and was the “best thing that ever happened to me.”
After reviewing a detailed medical report on Sizemore’s stay at Las Encinas Hospital, Mabrey expressed hope that the actor had his life back on track.
“The next month should prove to us that you’re going to stay sober -- clean and sober -- and work at the same time,” Mabrey told him. He will be allowed to leave the center accompanied by a “sober companion” but must check back in each night and undergo periodic drug testing.
“I just want to get back to work,” Sizemore said as he left the courtroom, accompanied by family and friends. “I know I have a difficult road ahead of me but I think I can meet that challenge.... I’m very proud to be a father and I just want to put this very difficult time behind me. I feel what doesn’t kill you, in fact, makes you a stronger person.”
His attorney, Michael J. Rovell, said that Sizemore has a movie scheduled for the end of this month and is working on a reality TV show about his life called “Super-Sizemore,” which they plan to pitch to cable television.
Rovell also said that the actor was establishing the “Thomas Edward Sizemore Jr. Foundation” that would “help fight the war on drugs.”
The current plan is to fund the foundation from a percentage of future earning from “Super-Sizemore.”
“We’re looking to give back and help people who are in the same situation as Mr. Sizemore is in,” Rovell said. “We feel it is a step in the right direction for him.”
Sizemore voluntarily checked into Las Encinas on July 11, one day before failing to show up for a hearing on his probation violation case in Mabrey’s court. A bench warrant was issued for his arrest, but wasn’t served because he later appeared in court.
During a later hearing in July, Sizemore admitted he had used a prosthetic device called a Whizzinator to fake a urine test last May, a charge he had repeatedly denied. He also admitted that he had not undergone drug tests at least once every three days, as the judge had previously ordered him to do.
“I’m not making any promises; I’m not making any deals,” she told the actor at that time.
On Thursday, however, she said the actor’s fate was “still in a holding pattern.”
“The court indicated when he comes back, if she reinstates him on probation, he’s again going to be subject to supervision by the probation office and he’s going to have to pass their tests as well,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Sean Carney. “If he’s truly recovered, then he shouldn’t have a problem doing that.” Sizemore is due back in court Oct. 17.