Actor Rich Gets Suspended Sentence : Courts: Judge says she believes district attorney’s office sought harsher penalty for former child star ‘to curry favor in the media’ in an election year.

In an acrimonious sentencing session, former child actor Adam Rich was ordered Monday to complete a residential drug rehabilitation program, but had a four-year prison sentence suspended after pleading no contest to drug and burglary charges.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Teri M. Hutchinson opposed the sentence, saying Rich, 24, should have been required to serve at least one year in County Jail for breaking into a West Hills pharmacy in April, 1991, and for stealing a drug-filled syringe from a Marina del Rey hospital in October.

“This is not an equitable solution that the people can accept,” said Hutchinson. “The people have nothing to do with accepting the plea.”

Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Kathryne Ann Stoltz said she thought the district attorney’s office was seeking a harsher sentence for Rich simply “to curry favor in the media in a year when the head of the office is seeking reelection.”

The district attorney’s office “is treating it differently because of his celebrity status and is asking me to treat it differently, which I declined to do,” Stoltz said.

Stoltz told Rich last month how she would sentence him whether he pleaded no contest or was convicted by a jury.

Rich’s attorney, Floyd J. Siegal, downplayed any political connection to the November reelection efforts of Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner, but said he thought prosecutors were handling the case differently.

Siegal said the prosecutor’s unwillingness to participate in accepting the no contest pleas--which are the legal equivalent of guilty pleas--was “improper and unprofessional . . . it’s like throwing a temper tantrum.”

Hutchinson denied that Rich was treated differently.

“All that we have been trying to do is seek justice,” she said. “We feel it was a jail case. We wanted him to get the punishment value of the crime.”

Monday’s sentencing culminates a series of tangles with the law for Rich, who played the Nicholas Bradford role on the TV series “Eight Is Enough.”

Rich was arrested April 6 and charged with felony commercial burglary and reckless driving after he broke two windows of a pharmacy in West Hills and sped away. Prosecutors claim he tried to steal drugs, but Rich said he simply broke the windows to vent his frustration at being refused drugs at a nearby hospital.

Ten days later, Rich was arrested for allegedly shoplifting a pair of socks and sunglasses from a department store in Northridge. The charge was reduced to trespassing as part of a plea agreement, and Rich was sentenced in October to two years probation and required to complete a drug rehabilitation program.

However, before he was formally sentenced on the trespassing charge, Rich was again arrested on Oct. 6 for stealing the drug-filled syringe after he was refused drugs for what he said was a shoulder injury.

In January, Rich was expelled from the drug program he was required to attend after throwing himself down a flight of stairs to obtain painkillers, and he was sentenced to 30 days in jail and required to enroll in and successfully complete another residential drug rehabilitation program.

Rich will be allowed to use his current enrollment in the drug program to satisfy Monday’s sentencing requirement. Siegal said Rich could complete the program in two to eight months. Rich also was placed on three years probation and will be required to submit to periodic drug testing by the Probation Department.