Adam Rich to Be Arraigned on Drug Possession Charge

Former child actor Adam Rich is to be arraigned today in West Los Angeles Municipal Court on charges that he attempted to steal a drug-filled syringe from a hospital--his fourth run-in with the law in little more than one year, police said.

The 22-year-old actor, who as a child played Nicholas Bradford in the long-running television series “Eight Is Enough,” was arrested Sunday at Daniel Freeman Marina Hospital in Marina del Rey.

The Chatsworth resident is also facing an Oct. 16 trial in Van Nuys Superior Court on a charge of breaking into a West Hills pharmacy April 6 allegedly to steal drugs.

A year ago, Rich was convicted in Beverly Hills of driving under the influence. And on Thursday, in a plea bargain, he pleaded no contest in San Fernando Municipal Court to trespassing rather than face a charge of shoplifting at a Northridge department store.

Police and prosecutors say Rich is addicted to painkillers and possibly other substances.

Floyd Siegal, Rich’s attorney, would concede Monday only that his client has “impulse control problems” and that Rich earlier this year had attended the Betty Ford Center, a substance abuse clinic in Rancho Mirage.

In the latest case, police said Rich went to the Marina del Rey hospital Sunday morning, saying he needed treatment for a dislocated shoulder.

Hospital personnel called police after the actor was spotted “placing a syringe with drugs from a doctor’s tray into his pants pocket,” Los Angeles Police Sgt. Dennis Barbello said.

Rich, who is being held at Los Angeles County Jail in lieu of $18,500 bail, is charged with possession of a controlled substance. Prosecutors said they would decide today whether to file the case as a misdemeanor or felony.

Siegal insisted that, despite some similarities in the two cases, Rich’s latest arrest would not undercut his defense in the burglary case pending in Van Nuys.

In a preliminary hearing in that case last week, Siegal argued that his client broke windows at Medallion Prescription Pharmacy “only because he was angry” about being refused painkillers at nearby Humana Hospital-West Hills.

“No drugs were taken, and nothing indicates that was his intent,” Siegal said.

Siegal contends that the charge in the pharmacy incident should be misdemeanor vandalism, not felony burglary, which carries a maximum penalty of three years in prison.

But a judge ordered that Rich be tried on the more serious charge, saying the case went beyond vandalism.

According to Humana Hospital personnel who testified at the hearing, Rich arrived with his left arm in a sling, saying he needed medicine for shoulder pain.

When he was refused drugs because he would not be X-rayed, the actor took the sling off and left swinging both arms freely, hospital officials testified.

He broke into the pharmacy minutes later, police say.

During the booking process Sunday on the latest charge, police said they learned that Rich was wanted on a $3,500 warrant charging him with failure to attend a court hearing stemming from his year-old driving under the influence conviction.

Siegal said a condition of Rich’s probation in that case is enrollment in a drug abuse program.

“He enrolled as ordered, but the paperwork somehow was never sent to court,” Siegal said.

A probation violation hearing is set Nov. 7 in Beverly Hills Municipal Court, officials said.