After spending Memorial Day weekend in jail for violating his probation by allegedly drinking alcohol, Tommy Lee went back to court Tuesday in Los Angeles for a release and terms of probation hearing.

The thirty-seven-year-old former Motley Crue drummer originally served four months of a six-month sentence stemming from his felony count of corporal injury to spouse -- to which he plead no contest in May, 1998. His three-year state prison sentence was suspended, based on the terms of his probation, during which he was to avoid drugs and alcohol. Lee was also ordered to seek anger management counseling, perform 200 hours of community service, donate $5,000 to a battered women's shelter and stay at least 100 yards away from his on-again, off-again spouse Pamela Anderson.

Though Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Lawrence J. Mira had commended Lee for good behavior during one of his six-month progress reports (another one of the conditions of his three-year probation), the judge also held a hearing in March of last year to investigate reports that Lee had been drinking at clubs in Miami, Fla., and Long Beach, Calif. Both incidents failed to impact Lee's probation once Mira ruled that there wasn't enough evidence to support either claim.

This time, however, proved different, as Anderson was reportedly the deputy district attorney's key witness to Lee's latest alleged drinking violations. Though Mira had the option of sending Lee back to jail for three years, in a closed-door hearing Friday, he instead remanded Lee to county jail for five days. Mira also extended Lee's probation to May 26, 2003 and ordered him to resume random drug testing and enroll in Alcoholics Anonymous.

Lee's current project, Methods of Mayhem, are scheduled to kick off their European tour June 4 in Amsterdam.

JENNIFER VINEYARD
(May 31, 2000)