Local News in Brief : Tunney Gets Probation
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Former U.S. Sen. John V. Tunney was sentenced Friday to 18 months’ informal probation and fined $484 after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor charge of reckless driving.
Tunney, 53, an attorney and a political commentator for KABC-TV, had been charged with misdemeanor drunk driving stemming from a March, 1987, traffic stop.
But in a plea bargain with the Santa Monica city attorney’s office, he was allowed to plead guilty to a lesser offense of non-alcohol-related reckless driving.
Prosecutors stated in a written affidavit that they agreed to dismiss the drunk driving charge in part because Tunney’s blood-alcohol level was only slightly above the legal limit.
Tunney, a California Democrat who served in the U.S. Senate for one term from 1971 to 1977, was arrested March 6, 1987, by California Highway Patrol officers who alleged that his car was speeding and weaving on Pacific Coast Highway. He was sentenced by Santa Monica Municipal Judge Joseph Chandler.
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