Judge Orders Drug Treatment, Not Jail, For Courtney Love

A judge Friday ordered Courtney Love into drug treatment instead of jail for violating her probation on past narcotics and assault charges. Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Rand Rubin also extended Love’s probation for 18 months.

Last month, Rubin warned the notoriously unstable rock musician, who had overdosed in July at a Hollywood nightclub, that she was heading toward “rock bottom.” But after receiving reports that Love had been in drug treatment for 28 days, the judge sounded more hopeful.

“I’m very pleased with your progress,” Rubin told Love. “I think it’s an excellent first step on your road to recovery.” Love, dressed in a plum-colored skirt and sweater, did not respond.

“You can just look at her and see she is doing great,” Love’s attorney, Howard Weitzman, said after the court hearing.

Love was on probation when she was taken by ambulance July 21 from the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, where she had been attending a fashion industry party, to Cedars-Sinai Hospital.

Love, 41, had publicly insisted for months that she had kicked her drug habit. Her renewed legal difficulties are expected to have major repercussions on her efforts to revive a stalled career and to maintain custody of her daughter, 13-year-old Frances Bean Cobain, whose father is the late rock icon Kurt Cobain.

Although she won strong acclaim for her music and praise for some of her film work in the 1990s, attention has since shifted to her personal troubles. Her most recent album, last year’s “America’s Sweetheart,” sold only 100,000 copies, a steep decline from sales in the millions for earlier recordings.

In October 2003, Love was arrested at the home of her former boyfriend and manager after an alleged break-in. She tested positive for cocaine and opiates. Hours later, paramedics were called to Love’s house, where she was treated for what appeared to be an overdose. She eventually pleaded guilty to possessing the painkiller oxycodone without a proper prescription.

In April 2004, Love was accused of throwing a bottle at a woman she reportedly found sleeping on the couch of the same boyfriend. Charges were filed several months later and Love pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of assault with a deadly weapon.

Also Friday, attorney Gloria Allred told reporters that the woman on the couch, Kristin King, lead singer of the Pretty Vicious rock band, was filing an assault and battery lawsuit against Love. The filing could not be independently confirmed by the clerk of the court. Allred said King had not met Love before the incident.