Actor Adam Rich Will Stand Trial in Pharmacy Break-In

A Van Nuys Municipal Court judge ruled Wednesday that there is enough evidence to try television actor Adam Rich on a charge that he broke into a pharmacy to steal drugs.

Prosecutors say that Rich, 22, who played Nicholas Bradford on “Eight Is Enough,” smashed his way into the Medallion Prescription Pharmacy in West Hills on April 6 to steal painkillers, to which they say he was addicted.

But Rich’s attorney, Floyd Siegal, contended during a two-day preliminary hearing that his client broke the store’s windows solely to vent his anger at being refused drugs at nearby Humana Hospital-West Hills.

“He was mad, and that’s why he broke windows,” Siegal said, arguing that his client should be charged with vandalism, not commercial burglary.

Siegal said that the pharmacy’s interior burglar alarms were set off only because Rich entered the store briefly to retrieve a tire iron he used to break the windows.

Police, responding to the 4 a.m. alarm, apprehended Rich a few blocks away and also charged him with reckless driving.

Nothing was taken from the pharmacy, police said.

But Deputy Dist. Atty. Teri M. Hutchison argued that evidence indicated that Rich, a Chatsworth resident, was “desperate” for painkillers to feed a drug habit and said the actor had unsuccessfully pressured doctors and nurses at the hospital for drugs immediately before the break-in.

Rich arrived at Humana Hospital with his left arm in a sling, saying he needed medicine for shoulder pain, officials said.

But hospital records introduced in court said that when the actor left, after failing to obtain drugs because he refused to be X-rayed, he removed the sling and was seen “carrying both arms naturally.”

Rich “lied to everyone as to why he went to the hospital,” Hutchison said. “But now he wants us to believe his story about why he went into the pharmacy.”

Judge Robert L. Swasey gave no reason for ordering Rich to stand trial on the felony burglary charge, which carries a maximum penalty of one year in prison.

He ordered the actor to be arraigned on the burglary and reckless-driving charges in Van Nuys Superior Court on Oct. 16.

Rich also is scheduled to appear in San Fernando Municipal Court today on an unrelated shoplifting charge.

Police say he was apprehended April 16 while stealing sunglasses and a pair of socks from a store at the Northridge Fashion Center.