Former 'Baywatch' Actor Pleads No Contest
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - Michael Bergin (news), who claimed in a book that he had an affair with John F. Kennedy Jr.'s wife shortly after she was married, pleaded no contest to a felony drunken driving charge.
The charge stemmed from a July 2004 accident in West Hollywood that injured a woman who was inline skating.
Bergin was sentenced Thursday by Superior Court Judge Richard A. Stone to 30 days in jail and three years' probation, said Jane Robison, a spokeswoman for the district attorney's office. Bergin also was ordered to participate in a Mothers Against Drunk Driving program, Robison said.
Under the plea agreement, a second felony drunken driving charge was dismissed.
The victim, a competitive inline skater, suffered leg fractures after she was hit by a sport utility vehicle driven by Bergin. She approved of the plea and sentencing, said Deputy District Attorney Angela Brunson.
Bergin, a former "Baywatch" actor, had faced a maximum sentence of six years in prison.
He wrote "The Other Man: A Love Story," published last year, about his relationship with Carolyn Bessette. He claimed they were longtime friends and began their affair in 1997 when Kennedy was on a kayaking trip.
Kennedy and his wife were killed along with her sister, Lauren Bessette, in 1999 when the single-engine plane he was piloting crashed in the ocean near Martha's Vineyard, located off the Massachusetts coastline.
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