IDOL' CONTESTANT HAS DRUG ARRESTS IN PAST

Charges Eventually Dismissed; Fox TV Stands By Bo Bice

"American Idol" contestant Bo Bice is hoping for a future in entertainment,
but a bit of his past reared its head Thursday.

Thesmokinggun.com Web site revealed the Huntsville native now living in
Helena was arrested twice in the past four years on drug charges. But the
charges were dismissed when Bice completed a diversion program.

And, the Fox television network and producers of the program are standing
by Bice.

Attachment: http://www.mapinc.org/temp/spacer.gif "The information
disclosed on various salacious gossip Web sites regarding Bo Bice's past
was already well-known to Fox and the producers of 'American Idol,' " the
network said in a news release. "From the beginning, Bo was honest and
forthcoming in revealing his previous indiscretions and their outcome."

Telephone messages left with Bice's mother Nancy Downes of Atlanta were not
returned.

Huntsville attorney David Worley, who is Bice's cousin and represented the
singer while the case dragged through the Madison County court, said he was
shocked when he received calls all day Thursday from national media outlets.

"After he completed the requirements of the diversion program, those
records are supposed to be sealed by the court," Worley said.

Assistant District Attorney Don Rizzardi disagrees. He said there will
always be a record of the indictment and the disposition of the case.

Bice, 29, was arrested in Huntsville in June 2001 for possession of
cocaine, a felony, but the case was dismissed two months later by Madison
County District Judge Susan Moquin.

In 2003, prosecutors presented the evidence from the cocaine charge to a
grand jury, Rizzardi said, and Bice was indicted March 21, 2003.

Bice was picked up July 25, 2003, in Pelham, a Birmingham suburb, and
charged with marijuana possession, possession of drug paraphernalia and
public intoxication, all misdemeanors. Before he was released from jail, he
was turned over to Madison County authorities and charged on the cocaine
indictment.

Last December, Bice pleaded guilty in Shelby County Circuit Court to public
intoxication and possession of paraphernalia and paid fines in both cases.
The marijuana possession charge was dismissed, according to state court
records. On the cocaine charge, Worley requested his client be admitted to
the drug diversion program, Rizzardi said.