Boy George heads back to UK (due to nose problem)

[StoneMtn]

[color:purple]Gosh, I, for one, feel more secure now that this dangerous criminal is off this continent...

Boy George heads back to UK

Oct 9, 2005

Boy George is understood to be preparing to fly home to the UK after being charged with possessing cocaine in the United States.

The 44-year-old ex-Culture Club frontman, whose real name is George O'Dowd, faces a battle to save his lavish New York home and career as a top DJ if he is convicted on the charges, a leading lawyer has said.

The gay icon has protested his innocence but will effectively be excluded from America if found guilty.

George was arrested in New York on Friday by police responding to a report the singer made of a burglary at his luxury Manhattan home.

It is alleged they found an amount of cocaine near a computer and more of the substance elsewhere in the apartment.

It was understood George was preparing to fly back to London overnight.

Human rights lawyer Mark Stephens said: "Boy George is innocent until proved guilty but if he's found guilty it could have major implications for him to be allowed into the US. He would effectively be excluded.

"If there's going to be an exception made it has to be made at a high level - the attorney-general.

"It's treated on a case-by-case basis, he would not be able to get a visa to get in. He would have to get permission to be allowed into the country.

"They treat drug convictions very seriously in America."

George moved to the United States when his musical Taboo - based on a night club in 1980s' London - moved to Broadway.

He first caught the public's imagination in the 1980s when his group Culture Club shot to chart success with the single Do You Really Want To Hurt Me? The classic release Karma Chameleon followed and their album Colour By Numbers sold in huge numbers.

George became a household name around the world and stayed in the headlines with attention-grabbing statements like declaring he preferred a cup of tea to sex.

But he suffered a well-publicised heroin addiction in the 80s, later recovering to pursue a career as a DJ.

George's former agent Tony Denton said after speaking to the singer's sister, Siobhan, that the star denied the drug was his.

Denton said: "Basically, he did call the police himself. He actually thought somebody was breaking into the apartment.

"They turned up and they searched the apartment and found traces of cocaine on the computer table, which George has said he was not taking and was nothing to do with him."

Boy George appeared high when officers arrived and police found 13 small bags with the drug during a search of his place, the New York Post reported.

"It was a small amount of drugs," the singer's lawyer, Lou Freeman, told the paper. "He does not know where it came from. He's had a lot of people in his house."

Manhattan District Attorney's office spokeswoman Barbara Thompson said the singer was released after being charged with possession of a controlled substance, allegedly more than five grams of cocaine.

The charge carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison.

Denton said police had not taken the singer's passport.

He said: "At the moment, he can go in and out (of the US) as he feels.

"Other people were staying in the flat and people are there frequently, so obviously somebody else is doing it.

"He is going back to court on December 19 and basically he is flying back to London today."

http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/411423/617705

[Calamity Jane]

Boy George heads back to UK

"It was a small amount of drugs," the singer's lawyer, Lou Freeman, told the paper. "He does not know where it came from. He's had a lot of people in his house." .....

..... "Other people were staying in the flat and people are there frequently, so obviously somebody else is doing it.

wow, will this actually work

hmmm, I, also have, umm, many 'crazy and weird' "friends" who, uh, visit frequently and um, forget stuff.

I say hang the bastard anyway; he never did answer my fan mail in grade 9!

[h]

i still wish george well. i use to draw his picture in grade 8.

I thought he was very pretty.

Actually, come to think of it, he was my very first concert by myself way back when.