Actress Tatum O’Neal pleaded guilty today to disorderly conduct in connection with her June cocaine possession arrest in lower Manhattan.
Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Elisa Koenderman sentenced O’Neal to a conditional discharge. She must spend two half-day sessions in a drug treatment program and pay a $95 court fee.
Koenderman noted that O’Neal was pleading to a reduced charge – a violation – which is an offense less serious than a misdemeanor. The judge said that when the actress returns to court on Sept. 4, the case will be dismissed.
O’Neal, 44, said as she left court that she planned to “go back to my meetings and go back to my life taking care of my children. I’m just glad that I got the deal that I got. My lawyer did a good job.”
“I wish it (the drug arrest) hadn’t happened, but we move on now,” said O’Neal, a former child star who struggled with drugs for years. “I have to go back to ‘Rescue Me’ (her TV series) next week. I have work to do.”
O’Neal is the youngest person ever to win an Oscar. The daughter of actor Ryan O’Neal, she was 10 when she won an Academy Award in 1974 for best supporting actress for 1973’s “Paper Moon.”