Christina Aguilera has been released from jail after being arrested for being drunk in public, and authorities don't plan to seek criminal charges.
Los Angeles County sheriff's Deputy Bill McSweeney says the 30-year-old singer was in a car driven by her boyfriend that was stopped on a West Hollywood street at about 2:45 a.m. Tuesday.
Twenty-five-year-old Matthew Rutler was booked on suspicion of driving under the influence. He remains jailed on $30,000 bail.
McSweeney says Aguilera appeared extremely intoxicated and incapable of driving home, so she was taken to the West Hollywood sheriff's station and held until she sobered up.
McSweeney says Aguilera was released out a back gate around 7:30 a.m., avoiding paparazzi at the front.
Calls to her agent and publicist weren't returned early Tuesday.
Sources close to Aguilera tell TMZ they have been trying to get the singer into a rehab program for weeks
Christina Aguilera Arrested, Jailed for Her Safety
We have no desire to prosecute, none whatsoever. It just for a public safety issue," says Whitmore. "When she was able to navigate and to think on her own and make her own way, she was released."
Aguilera, 30, was a passenger in a car driven by boyfriend Matthew Rutler that was pulled over at 2:45 a.m. when deputies noticed the vehicle driving erratically. Both were booked, Aguilera for public intoxication, Rutler for DUI.
"She was not capable to taking care of herself. She was incapacitated," says Whitmore. "She was cooperative. She was not belligerent in any way whatsoever. She was just intoxicated."
By law, a person can be held in custody if they cannot take care of themselves, he says.
"As she got better, she just said, 'I would like to leave,'" says Whitmore, and deputies granted her request.
Christina Aguilera arrested for drunkenness
Fresh from a stumble at the Grammys and muffing the national anthem at the Super Bowl, singer Christina Aguilera was arrested early Tuesday near the Sunset Strip on suspicion of being drunk in public but will not be prosecuted, authorities said.
Aguilera, 30, was "extremely intoxicated" when a car driven by her boyfriend was stopped at about 2:45 a.m. on Clark Street, Los Angeles County sheriff's Deputy Bill McSweeney said.
The car was stopped just off the Sunset Strip, not far from such famous nightspots as Whiskey A Go-Go and the Viper Room.
The driver, Matthew Rutler, 25, was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence and jailed on $5,000 bail, sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said.An anonymous source told TMZ that if "the driver had NOT been arrested for DUI, [Christina] would have never been in trouble." Another unnamed source allegedly close to the singer told the site that her confidants have been trying to get the performer into a rehab facility for several weeks.
Aguilera's personal life and career have been on a slide over the past year, beginning with the flop of her Bionic album, which has sold only 250,000 copies in the U.S. to date. That was followed by a hastily canceled U.S. tour, the disappointing returns for her big-screen debut in "Burlesque" and her divorce from husband Jordan Bratman.
Those incidents were followed by her infamous flubbing of the national anthem at February's Super Bowl and a stumble on the Grammys stage a week later, amid tabloid reports that her partying had gotten out of hand. Aguilera won’t be charged with a crime, although the misdemeanour arrest will remain on her record, Whitmore said. “Technically it’s an arrest, but from the very beginning there was never an intention to prosecute,” he said.
Calls to Aguilera’s agent, Tracy Brennan, and her publicist, Nicole Perez, weren’t returned Tuesday.
Aguilera recently split from music executive Jordan Bratman, the father of her 3-year-old son. She filed for divorce in October and their split becomes official April 15.
Aguilera lost her footing at the Feb. 13 Grammy Awards during a tribute medley to singer Aretha Franklin. She also made headlines by botching a line while singing the national anthem at the Feb. 6 Super Bowl.vAssociated Press
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