Local News in Brief : TV Actor Pleads No Contest Over Collision

Aco-star of the television series “Fame” pleaded no contest Thursday to drunken driving in connection with a December accident in which he crashed into a car head-on and injured a Studio City man and his two young sons.

Under a plea agreement with prosecutors, Kenneth C. Swofford, 55, who plays the principal in the show, could be sentenced June 13 to a maximum of four years in state prison for the accident that left George Charouhas, 37, disabled with a spine injury, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael Pargament.

Paul Charouhas, 11, suffered skull fractures and his brother, Stephen, 6, suffered a broken leg, Pargament said.

The crash occurred about 7 p.m. Dec. 17 at Ventura Boulevard and Eureka Avenue in Studio City. According to police reports, Swofford swerved over the double yellow line and hit Charouhas’ car head-on.

Swofford, who suffered facial cuts, had a blood-alcohol level of 0.18%, Pargament said. The legal limit under California law is 0.10%.

Swofford, of Woodland Hills, had no prior history of arrests or convictions, Pargament said. But he said he believed that a prison sentence is appropriate.

“He’s got an absolutely clean record,” the prosecutor said. “He’s a solid, middle-class, pillar-of-the-community type. Nonetheless I have a young man in his late 30s who’s now got a life-crippling ailment. I don’t know if he’ll ever recover from his spine injury. The level of injuries in this case lead me to believe that this ought to be a state prison sentence.”

Swofford would not comment on the case when reached by telephone Thursday at his home.