Singer to Pay $3 Million to Crash Victims
In an unusual plea bargain, the lead singer for the heavy-metal rock band Motley Crue was ordered today to pay nearly $3 million to victims of an alcohol-related crash.
Vincent Neil Wharton, 24, was also ordered to spend 30 days in county jail, beginning next June, and to continue performing 200 hours of community service, which his lawyer said has included benefit concerts and anti-drug and alcohol speeches.
“I feel a sentence like this benefits society,” said the lawyer, Michael Nasatir of Santa Monica. “It’s an unusual case because you have a young man with an enormous potential to reach teen-agers. He speaks their language.”
Wharton pleaded guilty in July to charges of manslaughter and drunk driving in connection with a Redondo Beach collision Dec. 8 that killed one man and injured two other people.
He was ordered to pay $1.8 million to Lisa Hogan, 18, of Rancho Palos Verdes, who was critically injured and spent weeks in a coma after the accident.
The other victim, Daniel Smithers, 20, will receive $700,000, while $200,000 will go to the estate of Nicholas Dingley, 24, who died in the head-on crash.
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