Fred Willard Offered Deal To Avoid Lewd Conduct Charges

Earlier this week, beloved comedian Fred Willard was arrested for one of the more embarrassing crimes imaginable. An LAPD officer supposedly spotted him with his penis out at an adult movie theater, and the actor was quickly hauled off to jail, charged and released. The story was all over the papers by the next morning, and poor Fred was give the heave-ho from his PBS show Market Warriors.

Yesterday, Willard declared his innocence publically for the first time, and within hours, the manager of the theater actually came out and defended him, saying he never saw the seventy-two-year-old do anything wrong. Regardless of whether he’s guilty or not, if he decides to play by the rules, it looks like he won’t have to go back to court.

According to TMZ, the LA City Attorney has offered Fred a deal to wipe the slate clean. If he’s willing to complete a two-week class that’ll cover the ins-and-outs of the law he supposedly broke, he’ll be allowed to move along. As of press time, it’s unclear whether the Best In Show actor will go for the deal or roll the dice and potentially get charged. Choosing the Alternative Prosecution Program isn’t exactly admitting guilt, but it’s sort of close. Then again, that still might be better than being found guilty.

We’ll keep you updated.

Mack Rawden
Editor In Chief

Mack Rawden is the Editor-In-Chief of CinemaBlend. He first started working at the publication as a writer back in 2007 and has held various jobs at the site in the time since including Managing Editor, Pop Culture Editor and Staff Writer. He now splits his time between working on CinemaBlend’s user experience, helping to plan the site’s editorial direction and writing passionate articles about niche entertainment topics he’s into. He graduated from Indiana University with a degree in English (go Hoosiers!) and has been interviewed and quoted in a variety of publications including Digiday. Enthusiastic about Clue, case-of-the-week mysteries, a great wrestling promo and cookies at Disney World. Less enthusiastic about the pricing structure of cable, loud noises and Tuesdays.