The Los Angeles County District Attorney's office filed charges against Scott Weiland today, two days after the singer was arrested on suspicion of drug possession. Weiland will face one count of possession of a controlled substance, according to the Glendale area division of the LADA, who declined to give out any more information. Yesterday, a statement from a spokesperson for Reloaded -- the band featuring former members of Guns n' Roses that Weiland had been recording and running with -- claimed the drugs weren't Weiland's, but belonged to the driver of the car he was a passenger in. Both the singer and the driver of the car were arrested just after midnight Saturday night when Burbank police pulled them over in a routine traffic stop. Weiland was released on bail Sunday morning.

Reloaded's spokesperson would not comment on the new charges against the singer.

Weiland, best known for fronting the Stone Temple Pilots, has been arrested on drug charges twice before in California, in 1995 and 1997. He was also busted in New York in 1998, and the next year served prison time in Los Angeles after a heroin overdose that a judge found violated his probation. After his release, Weiland tried to go clean, but was arrested in Las Vegas in 2001 after an argument with his wife Mary over a prescription turned into a domestic violence charge. The Weilands filed for divorce last September.

AUGUSTIN SEDGEWICK
(May 20, 2003)