Darius Rucker will be put on probation for nearly a year after pleading no contest to a misdemeanor drug charge in Williamson County, Tenn.
The 58-year-old country star was booked earlier this year on three misdemeanor charges — two counts of simple possession/casual exchange of a controlled substance and one count of a violation of vehicle registration law — in relation to a 2023 traffic stop. On Sept. 10, he entered a plea of no contest to one simple possession charge.
By pleading no contest, Rucker waived his right to a trial in Tennessee and will accept a sentence of 11 months and 29 days of probation, with the charges expunged if he completes the period, Penn Live reported.
The Hootie & the Blowfish frontman is now ready to move on with his life.
“On behalf of Darius, we want to thank the Honorable Judge Tom Taylor, and the District Attorney’s office for the time and care taken in considering the details of this case and its final disposition,” Rucker’s attorneys, Mark Puryear and Richard Gusler, told WKRN, a Nashville TV station, in a statement. “In addition, we want to thank and commend the members of the Franklin Police Department and the Williamson County Sheriff’s Department for the respectful and professional manner in which they treated Darius during this process. Darius looks forward to working through this probationary period and putting this all behind him.”
Rucker rewarded for ‘good character’
The district attorney had said in court he recommended one count of simple possession and the expired registration because of the “Wagon Wheel” hitmaker’s “good character.”
Rucker previously admitted he was “shocked” when he learned a warrant was issued for his arrest, so long after he was originally stopped by cops.
“I mean, I looked back at that and I was like, ‘I got stopped by a police officer and I had a little bit of pot, and I think a little bit of some mushrooms or something in the car, and he let me go,’ ” he told People magazine. “And a year later, I got a phone call from a buddy [who] said, ‘I think I just saw an arrest warrant for you.’ It shocked me. My friends who were in the police department were like, ‘Have you p—ed somebody off up here?’ Because this is crazy that they’re doing this a year later.”
