Ex-Actor Sentenced to Drug Center Program

Former child actor Adam Rich, the subject of four separate criminal proceedings, was sentenced Thursday in San Fernando Municipal Court to complete a program at a residential drug treatment center.

Rich, 22, who as a child played the youngest son in the TV series “Eight Is Enough,” pleaded no contest to a charge of trespassing. He was originally charged with shoplifting from a Northridge department store on April 16, but the charge was reduced under a plea agreement.

Rich was to be sentenced to two years probation. He was also expected to be ordered to pay a $250 fine and to be required to attend at least two meetings a week of Narcotics Anonymous for a least a year.

But before sentencing, Rich was arrested on suspicion of stealing a drug-filled syringe from a Marina del Rey hospital, so Judge Nora M. Manella increased the sentence to require enrollment in a full-time program.

In sentencing Rich, who has already begun the program and was accompanied to court by a program staff member, Manella said that she hoped any sentences in Rich’s pending cases would not interfere with his drug treatment.

Rich is awaiting separate hearings on a burglary charge for allegedly smashing a window of a West Hills pharmacy, for failing to show up for a court session on a drunk-driving conviction, and for the alleged theft of the syringe from the hospital.