Federal prosecutors dropped their charges accusing Bruce Springsteen of operating a vehicle under the influence and driving recklessly, last November 14th at New Jersey's Sandy Hook National Recreation Area. "The Boss" pleaded guilty on Wednesday (February 24th) to charges he "imbibed alcohol despite knowing it was prohibited." Springsteen appeared in a virtual appearance in New Jersey Federal court admitting, "I had two small shots of Tequila."
U.S. Attorney Adam Baker dropped charge stating the government would not be able to prove their case. Baker told the court: "The evidence we reviewed indicates that after the defendant's arrest, he submitted to a breath test at the ranger station, and his BAC reading was .02, which as the court is aware is well under the legal limit of .08."
Before sentencing Springsteen to pay a $500 fine plus $40 in court fees, Judge Anthony Mautone made note of Springsteen's essentially spotless driving record: "I have in front of me the driver's abstract of this defendant, going all the way back to 1973. There's three violations in the whole abstract. In fact, two of them aren't even violations and the third one is use of a hand-held cell device. Rarely would you see a driver's abstract so devoid of any entries as I see before me, Mr. Springsteen."
Following the news of Springsteen's arrest last November, his two-minute "In The Middle" ad for Jeep vehicles, which premiered during the Super Bowl was pulled. A Jeep spokesperson told Fox News after the verdict was announced: "As we stated previously, we paused the commercial until the facts were established. Now, that the matter has been resolved, we are unpausing the film."
