Actor’s Prison Term to Start Today

Actor Kenneth Swofford, who played a school principal in the television series “Fame,” is to begin serving a 28-month state prison term today for a drunk-driving collision that seriously injured a man and his two sons.

Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Richard Kolostian allowed Swofford, 55, to remain free from custody until today, when he must surrender to begin his term.

On Feb. 23, Swofford pleaded no contest to a single felony charge of driving under the influence of alcohol and causing injuries to others.

Prosecutors said that after drinking at a bar in Studio City on Dec. 17, Swofford drove his car the wrong way on Ventura Boulevard and crashed into a car driven by George Charouhas, 37, and containing his two sons. The impact of the collision sent Charouhas’s car careening into a third vehicle.

Charouhas suffered two fractured vertebrae and a broken knee; his son, Paul, 11, suffered a fractured skull and pelvis and was in a coma for a week after the accident; and his other son, Steven, 6, suffered a broken leg in the crash.