Actor Robert Downey Jr. Arrested for a Third Time

After slipping out of a mandatory drug rehabilitation program, actor Robert Downey Jr. was arrested Saturday for the third time in a month, a Los Angeles County sheriff’s spokesman said.

The staff at the Exodus Recovery Center on Lincoln Boulevard in Marina del Rey--where Downey had been sent as a condition of bail after an earlier arrest--noticed that the 31-year-old actor was missing about 9:35 a.m. and contacted authorities, Sgt. Richard Dinsmoor said.

Malibu Municipal Judge Lawrence J. Mira, who had handled Downey’s previous arrests--both drug-related--issued a warrant for the actor’s arrest. Downey was taken into custody when he returned to Exodus on his own about 1 p.m. The staff at the recovery center declined to comment on its famous guest.

Dinsmoor said Downey gave himself up without incident. Late Saturday afternoon, the actor was booked into Los Angeles County Jail. Dinsmoor said that while in custody, Downey “will have to be escorted wherever he goes, and that is for his safety. That is procedure with all our inmates of notoriety.”

Mira set bail for Downey’s latest incident at $250,000, with a provision that it will be lowered to $100,000 if he is released into a locked drug treatment program.

The Oscar-nominated star of “Chaplin” was arrested last week after he wandered into a neighbor’s home and fell asleep in a bed. Police said then that he was under the influence of a controlled substance, which they believe was heroin.

In June, after Downey was stopped for speeding on Pacific Coast Highway, heroin, other drugs and a firearm were found in his car, authorities said.