Tiffany Haddish avoids more jail time by admitting drink-driving

Actress and comedian Tiffany Haddish has avoided additional jail time after pleading guilty to an alcohol-related driving charge that stemmed from her 2022 arrest in Georgia.

Other charges were dropped. After entering the plea by video, Haddish was placed on 12 months’ probation and told to avoid drugs and alcohol and complete a substance abuse evaluation.

She was credited for the brief time she spent in jail following her arrest.

Haddish’s films include the comedy Girls Trip, Night School, Like A Boss and The Kitchen.

She wrote the New York Times bestseller The Last Black Unicorn, which earned a Grammy nomination for a subsequent audiobook she narrated. In 2018, she won an Emmy for her appearance on Saturday Night Live and a Grammy in 2021 for her special Black Mitzvah.

At around 2.30am local time on January 14, 2022, someone called 911 to report seeing a person who appeared to be asleep in the driver’s seat of a white Ford Explorer with their foot on the brake in Peachtree City, about 30 miles south of Atlanta, according to court papers.

An officer spotted an SUV that matched the description given by the caller and stopped Haddish as she pulled in, according to a police report.

Haddish’s lawyers in May asked a judge to dismiss the case, arguing that waiting more than four years for the case to be resolved had caused personal and professional difficulties and violated her right to a quick trial.

Fayette County state court judge Jason Thompson rejected her arguments.

The judge found that Haddish and her lawyers had requested some of the delays, including a request for a halt so she could attend a fashion show in Morocco and a request to leave a hearing early to catch a flight.

He wrote that she also did not show any evidence of having missed specific performing opportunities or of actual financial harm because of the delay.

Haddish was also arrested in November 2023 in Beverly Hills, California, on suspicion of driving under the influence after police received a call and said Haddish appeared to be slumped over the wheel of a vehicle while the engine was still running.

Haddish reached a plea deal with prosecutors in that case in February 2024, pleading no contest to a vehicle code violation, and the two misdemeanour DUI charges against her were dropped, according to the Los Angeles Times.