|
 The 41-year-old professional golfer was found
asleep in May behind the wheel of a Mercedes-Benz, which was
parked alongside a road not far from his home on Jupiter Island.
Woods entered his plea and accepted the conditions, including 12
months of probation, by responding to questions from Florida
Circuit Judge Sandra Bosso-Pardo. He will now enter a diversion
program offered in Palm Beach County for first-time DUI
offenders.
Woods is eligible for the program since he had no prior criminal
record, cooperated with police and was not involved in a crash,
said Dave Aronberg, state attorney for the 15th Judicial Circuit
of Florida.
Woods has already completed 50 hours of community service as
part of the program, said Aronberg.
"This particular plea agreement has no jail time," Bosso-Pardo
told Woods during the hearing. "However, if you violate your
probation in any significant way, I could revoke your probation
and sentence you to jail for 90 days. Is that understood?"
Woods replied: "Yes."
The hearing lasted only a few minutes. Woods, dressed in a
charcoal gray suit and a gray T-shirt, did not answer questions
shouted by reporters as he left the courthouse in Palm Beach
Gardens and was driven away in a black SUV.
Woods told police officers at the time of his arrest that he was
returning from Los Angeles, but could not remember where he was
going, even though his car was headed away from his home, the
arrest report showed.
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Woods had five drugs in his system when he was arrested, but no
alcohol, according to a toxicology report. Those drugs included
generic forms of the painkillers Vicodin and Dilaudid; the mood drug
Xanax; the sleeping pill Ambien, and a drug that contained THC, the
active ingredient in marijuana.
If Woods completes the program, the reckless driving charge will be
expunged from his record. But if he is arrested again for DUI, he
will be treated as a second-time offender, Aronberg said.
In a statement after his arrest, Woods apologized to fans and blamed
the incident on prescription medication he was taking to manage pain
from a recent back surgery.
Woods, who is second on the all-time list with 14 major men's golf
titles, has not won a major championship since 2008.
In 2009, he was involved in a bizarre early-morning car crash
outside his home near Orlando. The incident ballooned into a sex
scandal involving allegations of extramarital affairs, and ended
both his marriage and some lucrative endorsement deals.
(Additional reporting by Bernie Woodall in Fort Lauderdale, Florida;
editing by Colleen Jenkins and G Crosse)
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