Robert Downey Jr. Pardoned for 1990s Offenses

California Governor Jerry Brown granted Robert Downey Jr. clemency Thursday for 1990s drug and other offenses. The Christmas Eve pardons are an annual tradition, and this year the actor received one of 91 granted by the governor, issued primarily for nonviolent crimes and minor drug offenses.

Contemporary audiences know him as Tony Stark in Iron Man and The Avengers. In the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, Robert Downey Jr. had already shared the screen with Molly Ringwald, Sally Field, Whoopi Goldberg, Meg Ryan, Ian McKellan and Annette Bening, and earned an Academy Award nomination for the leading role in Chaplin. But that decade also saw trouble with drugs and multiple run-ins with the law. In 1996 he was arrested three times in one month.

He was sentenced in November 1996 for possession of a controlled substance, carrying a concealed weapon in a vehicle with a prior conviction, driving under the influence with priors, and use or under the influence of a controlled substance, according to the governor’s office. He served probation for two years and eight months, spent 15 months in prison and was on parole for two years before completing his sentence in December 2002.

http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/robert-downey-jr-pardoned-for-1990s-offenses/