Amanda Bynes has Beverly Hills court date Wednesday in DUI case
A Beverly Hills judge could take a plea Wednesday in Amanda Bynes’ drunk driving case in which she allegedly smashed into a Los Angeles County sheriff’s department cruiser last year.
Bynes is not required to be present in Judge Elden Fox’s courtroom because it is a misdemeanor charge, but her DUI attorney, Richard Hutton, could enter a plea to resolve the case. It will be last chance to resolve the case in Beverly Hills as criminal cases there are being transferred to the Airport courthouse.
The court date comes just days after Manhattan prosecutors charged Bynes with with attempted evidence tampering, reckless endangerment and marijuana possession after New York police alleged she tossed a bong out of her apartment.
The “Hairspray” and “She’s the Man” actress was charged last June with driving under the influence and refusing a Breathalyzer or blood-alcohol test in West Hollywood in connection with an April 6 incident.
She was arrested about 3 a.m. near the corner of Robertson and Santa Monica boulevards and taken into custody by deputies after her car struck the rear corner of the sheriff’s cruiser.
Bynes shortly after the arrest posted a message on Twitter asking President Obama to fire the deputy who made the arrest, saying she does not drink alcohol.
Jane Robison, a district attorney’s spokeswoman, said the charge specifies that Bynes was under the influence and that could be alcohol or drugs.
In the months that followed, she was charged in two alleged hit-and-runs involving other motorists, but a judge dismissed those cases after she and insurers reached a civil settlement with those involved.
Last year her attorney entered a no-contest plea for Bynes to a charge of driving with a suspended license in a case filed by Burbank prosecutors. Her license had been suspended after the series of driving incidents. Bynes was placed on three years’ informal probation and ordered to pay a fine while a second charge was dismissed.
In the recent New York case, an employee at the 47th Street high-rise where Bynes lives reported to police that she was smoking marijuana in the building’s lobby, acting erratically and supposedly talking to herself, according to authorities. Bynes has denied using drugs and said the so-called bong was a plant vase.
The New York case won’t affect the L.A. DUI charge. But Burbank prosecutors could seek to have her probation revoked for her conviction for driving without a license.
Bynes moved to New York last year after the serious of car-related arrests and charges.
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