Leif Garrett Is Jailed on Drug Charge

Seventies teen idol Leif Garrett was being held in Men’s Central Jail on Tuesday after being arrested on suspicion of possessing narcotics and failing to have a ticket in the Pershing Square subway station over the weekend.

Garrett, 44, was being held without bail because he was also detained on a bench warrant for allegedly violating the terms of his probation for a previous offense, Los Angeles County sheriff’s and district attorney’s officials said.

The musician-actor, who has a history of drug issues dating from the 1970s, pleaded guilty in March to attempted possession of cocaine-based narcotics and was placed on probation, said Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles district attorney’s office.

At a Dec. 20 hearing in that case, a judge issued a bench warrant for Garrett’s arrest for an unspecified reason, Gibbons said.

Garrett was detained about 6 p.m. Saturday on the platform of Pershing Square’s Red Line station by Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies assigned to the transit unit.

According to deputies, Garrett was detained after he was found to be without a ticket to ride the rail system. A subsequent check turned up suspected narcotics and the warrant for his arrest, officials said.

Garrett was booked and assigned to the jail Sunday. He is scheduled to appear at the downtown criminal courts building today on the alleged probation violation.

Prosecutors have not filed charges related to his latest arrest.

Los Angeles police in 1999 arrested the bandanna-wearing musician in the MacArthur Park area after he allegedly tried to buy narcotics from undercover officers.

In 1979, Garrett was behind the wheel of a Porsche and allegedly under the influence of beer and drugs when he rear-ended a car, leaving his passenger disabled.

Pershing Square is just a few blocks west of where actor Brad Renfro was arrested last month in a drug sting by the LAPD. Renfro was charged with felony attempting to possess heroin.