Actor Fred Willard, arrested last week while allegedly engaging in a lewd act at an adult movie theater, will avoid a criminal trial if he completes a program. It’s administered by an outside vendor (not from the LAPD) and costs about $380.
In response to Willard’s arrest, PBS announced Thursday that it would fire the actor from his job as narrator of its new “Market Warriors” series. Willard’s credits include “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy,” “This Is Spinal Tap” and “Wall-E.”
“I want to stress this was and is a fileable case, and should the defendant choose not to enroll or not complete the program, we have the option of filing criminal charges within a year,” Frank Mateljan, spokesman for City Atty. Carmen Trutanich, told The LA Times.
Prosecutors said Willard had a previous lewd conduct arrest dating to 1990.
“Should he complete the course, we will consider the matter closed,” Mateljan said.
Willard’s attorney on Thursday said the actor did nothing wrong: “With all due respect to the individual officer, our belief [is] that Fred did nothing in any violation of any law. We will be working vigorously to clear his name in this matter,” Paul Takakjian said in a statement to The Times.
Uniformed LAPD vice officers arrested the 72-year-old actor Wednesday evening at the Tiki Theater in LA.
