Leif Garrett was ordered to remain in a strict live-in drug rehabilitation program for another month, despite telling a judge he was “going down the right path” after spending 42 days there.
The 44-year-old former teen idol asked a Superior Court commissioner Thursday for permission to return to an outpatient treatment program so he could be with his mother, who is suffering from an undisclosed illness.
Garrett, who has appeared in some three dozen films, mostly in the 1970s and 1980s, and has released 10 music albums, agreed to enter the program for violating probation in a cocaine case stemming from a 2004 arrest.
He faces felony heroin possession charges after officers who stopped him Jan. 14 for allegedly trying to ride a Los Angeles subway train without a ticket said they found suspected narcotics. He has pleaded not guilty in that case.
Standing outside the courthouse with his mother and his attorney, Garrett blamed his recent drug arrest on his concerns for his mother’s poor health.
“I’m going down the right path,” he said. “Instead of a dirt road, I’ve been on a paved road.”
He also vowed to never appear again in an orange jail suit mug shot: “I don’t look good in orange,” he said.
His next court appearance is scheduled for April 6.