Manne wrote:
Despite impassioned pleas from his famous father, Michael Douglas, and equally famous grandfather, Kirk Douglas, 31-year-old Cameron Douglas was sentenced to five years in prison on drug-related charges in Federal District Court in Manhattan.
Even Michael Douglas’ wife, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Miami Heat president Pat Riley (a friend of Michael Douglas) asked Judge Richard M. Berman to go lenient on Cameron, and he did get off lighter than an average Joe: Cameron Douglas was facing a mandatory 10 years in prison for a charge of conspiracy to distribute drugs. He apologized before sentencing and admitted that he had squandered a lot of opportunities to turn his life around, but the judge wasn’t buying all the letters claiming Cameron was a “victim.” And early in the sentencing hearing the judge said he wasn’t confident that Cameron would turn his back on drugs after pleading guilty in January to charges that he dealt large quantities of meth and cocaine.
The judge noted that Cameron, an occasional actor and ex-DJ, will get credit for the eight months he has already served in jail. And if he gets into a drug-treatment program behind bars, then Douglas could have another year shaved off his sentence. He told Douglas the prison stint is his "last chance to make it."
Cameron was arrested last summer for dealing crystal meth out of hotel in New York’s Meatpacking District and then arrested again when his girlfriend tried to smuggle him drugs in an electric toothbrush while in jail (that's just genius).
The New York media seems to be very critical of the judge being rather lenient in this case. Isn’t a legal minimum a legal minimum? Apparently not, and that has some in the Big Apple thinking Cameron got special treatment. Gee, a famous family getting special treatment? Welcome to America.
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2010/03/20
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