Michael Douglas’ son Cameron pleads guilty to dealing drugs, faces at least 10 years in prison
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Cameron Douglas, son of actor Michael Douglas, pleaded guilty today to dealing large quantities of methamphetamine and cocaine while holed up in the trendy Hotel Gansevoort in Manhattan where he was arrested last year.
Cameron Douglas, 31, told a judge that a New York contact first asked him if he could score the drugs in 2006. After that, ‘I began supplying on a regular basis.’ Asked if he knew what he was doing was wrong, he replied, ‘Yes, your honor.’
Prosecutors said Douglas had signed a plea agreement, but the details weren’t disclosed. He faces a minimum 10-year prison term at sentencing on April 27. Michael Douglas and ex-wife Diandra Douglas released a statement in August about their son’s arrest, saying at the time that they were ‘devastated about the recent behavior of our son Cameron. Any family who has dealt with substance abuse knows how difficult it can be.’ The actor has said he was treated for alcoholism in the early 1990s.
The Oscar-winner spoke more recently about his son’s situation (‘It’s been painful’), and how he approached fatherhood with first born, in an interview for AARP’s magazine:
‘Would it have been better to have been around more? Absolutely. There were absences, and I was no angel,’ said the actor, now married to Catherine Zeta-Jones, whom he met several years after his split from Diandra and with whom he has two young children.
‘Cameron has a lot of life ahead. He now recognizes his own demons and struggles.’
In addition to conspiracy to distribute drugs, the younger Douglas pleaded guilty to heroin possession — a charge stemming from allegations that his girlfriend tried to smuggle him the drug in an electric toothbrush while he was under house arrest. ‘I think he handled it well under the circumstances,’ defense attorney Nicholas DeFeis said after his jailed client’s plea. The son of the Oscar-winning actor was arrested July 28 as part of a Drug Enforcement Administration investigation. Investigators say Douglas was paid tens of thousands of dollars for trafficking methamphetamine — what he referred to in intercepted phone calls as ‘pastry’ or ‘bath salts.’ Cash and drugs were routinely exchanged from coast to coast through shippers such as FedEx, court papers said. He had been previously arrested on drug-related charges in New York in 1999 and California in 2007.
-- Christie D’Zurilla
A lot of celebrities get their day in court -- or close to it. Click here and scroll down for more, including posts on the recent arrests of Adrian Pasdar, Andy Dick and Gary Coleman.
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