DOWNEY SERVED ENOUGH TIME, DRUG-CASE JUDGE DETERMINES

MALIBU -- The judge who ordered Robert Downey Jr. to prison for violating
probation in an earlier drug case ruled Tuesday that the actor has served
enough time behind bars.

Superior Court Judge Lawrence J. Mira also told Downey, 35, that the
hearing to ``re-evaluate credits on time served'' had nothing to do with a
pending drug case in Riverside County. Mira wished the actor good luck.

The actor didn't speak to reporters when he left the courthouse after
Tuesday's brief hearing.

Downey is to be arraigned Dec. 27 in Indio on two felony drug charges and a
misdemeanor stemming from his Nov. 25 arrest in Palm Springs. An anonymous
911 call led police to a room at Merv Griffin's Resort Hotel and Givenchy
Spa, where police allegedly found Downey with cocaine and methamphetamine.

The hearing Tuesday concerned Downey's release in August from the state
prison in Corcoran after the 2nd District Appellate Court agreed with
defense lawyers that there had been an error in calculating the length of
his sentence.

Mira failed to specify whether a felony probation violation sentence would
run concurrently or consecutively with the misdemeanor counts, the lawyers
said. When a judge doesn't make that part of the sentence, it automatically
runs concurrently.

As a result, the appeals court said Downey had not been given proper credit
for time served.

Before he went to prison, Downey spent 53 days in a drug rehabilitation
center as part of a 15-month sentence for misdemeanor convictions of
driving under the influence, carrying an unloaded weapon in his car and
being under the influence.

He was arrested in that case in June 1996 when he was stopped for speeding
on Pacific Coast Highway and authorities found cocaine, heroin and a pistol
in his vehicle.

Downey admitted during a probation hearing that he was missing scheduled
drug tests, and Mira sentenced him to three years in prison for violating
his probation.

After Downey's arrest last month, his publicist assessed his client's
situation.

``He's a recovering addict. Recovering addicts have relapses. He's working
hard at his sobriety as he has for the last 18 months,'' publicist Alan
Nierob said.