14 DAY TRIAL // Retired actress turned fashion student and aspiring fashion designer Amanda Bynes is in trouble again. The 28-year-old star has been arrested some hours ago for driving under the influence, with reports saying she’s popping pills and smoking weed again.
Last year, Amanda went through a very public meltdown, which ended with her institutionalized for mental evaluation and a stint in rehab that placed her under her parents’ conservatorship.
She was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, but her mother told the press that she didn’t have mental issues… just a serious problem with drugs, marijuana in particular.
Bynes has relapsed and her DUI is proof of that
For months in a row, after being released from rehab, Amanda seemed committed to sobriety: she moved in with her parents and started going to fashion classes, rarely making a solo public appearance. She was often photographed heading in and out of the gym or going to school, so that, in a few weeks, even the paparazzi lost interest.
Meanwhile, her mother told the media that, despite reports saying Amanda had been diagnosed with mental issues, the only reason she acted so erratically throughout 2013 was because she was alone in New York, smoking a lot of marijuana and doing more heavy-duty drugs.
Now that she was back home with them, there was basically no chance for a relapse, she suggested.
Still, a few hours ago, Bynes was picked up on suspicion of driving under the influence, at an intersection on Van Nuys Boulevard in San Fernando Valley. A police officer noticed her in her Mercedes looking “disheveled,” so he approached her to confirm his suspicion that she was under the influence.
Bynes was taken to the police station, where it was established that she’d taken a “stimulant.” TMZ reports that toxicology tests have been performed to determine the exact drug or drugs she might have taken before getting behind the wheel.
Bynes is out on bail but not out of trouble just yet
The star is no longer in police custody, having posted $15,000 (€11,817) bail after she was booked for DUI, the report goes on to mention. She will have to show up in court at a later date to be arraigned, and could even be facing some jail time because she’s currently on probation for a reckless driving conviction from February.
A DUI at this time complicates matters considerably, and chances are a judge won’t be too lenient with her since she violated the terms of her probation: she was supposed to stay completely out of trouble, not get herself another DUI.
And that’s only the icing on the cake for Bynes, TMZ claims. Even if she gets away with just a slap on the wrist, she needs to get her life back on track. Insiders claim that she’s moved out of her parents’ home and is now living alone in a flat in Orange County. She’s also been smoking weed around the clock and “things are bad again.”
A rep for the troubled star is yet to address her most recent arrest. Her parents are keeping mum as well, at least for the time being.