Richie Sambora pleads no contest to DUI

Blame those East Coast deadlines (and our indifference) again, folks, but Tuesday was the day Richie Sambora pleaded no contest on a charge of drunken driving from a March 25 arrest in Laguna Beach, Calif. TMZ says a second DUI was dropped in a plea agreement with prosecutors.

You'll recall the Bon Jovi guitarist was stopped with his 10-year-old daughter, Ava, her cousin and Richie's girlfriend Jenn Mallini in the car. Sambora will pay about $1,600 in fines and penalties, must attend an alcohol-education course and is on three years' probation.

He blew a .13 BAC, which is almost twice the legal limit of .08, and yet he managed to weasel out of a charge of child endangerment. Police apparently recommended the charge, but prosecutors decided not to go after him. Last time we checked, driving your kid around while you're half-dead from alcohol may, in fact, endanger the child. But what do we know? We're not from California.

[Photo: AP]