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Downey won't face charges from April drug arrest

Robert Downey Jr.

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Actor Robert Downey Jr. won't face new charges for his drug arrest last month, prosecutors announced Monday.

Instead, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office said it would treat the incident as a violation of Downey's parole from a prior string of drug convictions and send the matter to state corrections officials.

No drugs were found in Downey's possession when he was arrested last month in Culver City, California, but police urine tests showed cocaine in his system. He had been charged with being under the influence of a controlled substance, a misdemeanor, and had been scheduled to make a court appearance on that charge Tuesday.

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Downey, 35, has begun a six-month minimum stay in a 24-hour, live-in drug treatment facility in Southern California, said Russ Heimrich, a spokesman for the California Department of Corrections. The location of the center was not disclosed.

Downey's attorneys, Daniel Brooks and Robert Walters, released a statement saying that they were pleased by the decision by the District Attorney's office. The actor's lawyers said a decision hasn't been made as to whether their client would leave the treatment center for a scheduled May 24 court appearance in Indio, California, on a separate set of drug charges.

Downey was arrested in Palm Springs, California, last Thanksgiving weekend on felony charges of possession of cocaine and Valium, as well as being under the influence of a controlled substance. His lawyers have rejected plea bargain offices in the case and have argued that Downey was the victim of an illegal search.

Downey could be sentenced to four years and eight months in state prison if convicted on all those charges.

The actor was released from state prison in August after serving time for violating his probation on other drug-related offenses.

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