Rocker Courtney Love dodged an arrest warrant Tuesday when she showed up in a Beverly Hills courtroom for a hearing on charges of possessing two prescription painkillers.
Love last week skipped hearings in two criminal cases, prompting a judge to issue a bench warrant for her arrest. She later told radio talk show host Howard Stern that she stayed home because she lacked a professional bodyguard.
The warrant was withdrawn on Tuesday by Beverly Hills Superior Court Judge Lisa Hart Cole when Love, wearing dark sunglasses and accompanied by a new attorney, turned up for the brief court session.
Cole then ordered Love to return on March 16 for a preliminary hearing which will determine if she must stand trial on charges of possessing the prescription painkillers oxycodone and hydrocodone.
Love, 39, is charged in a separate case with a misdemeanor charge of being under the influence of a controlled substance. She has pleaded innocent to all of the charges.
A spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said Love had fired her former lawyer, William Genego, for reasons that were not made public. Genego declined to comment and Love’s new attorney, Michael Rosenstein, could not immediately be reached for comment.
Both of the criminal cases against Love -- who released her latest album, “America’s Sweetheart” last week -- stem from her Oct. 2 arrest outside the home of a boyfriend, where police said she was breaking windows in the middle of the night.
After being released on bail hours later, she was taken to a local hospital for what police called “a medical emergency.”
Love, the widow of Nirvana lead singer Kurt Cobain who won a Golden Globe award for her role in the 1996 film “The People vs. Larry Flynt,” lost custody of her 11-year-old daughter, Frances Bean Cobain, after her arrest.