\'Sopranos\' Actor Pleads Guilty to Petty Larceny
Tue Apr 23, 5:00 PM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Robert Iler, the teen-age actor who plays the troubled son of a mob boss on the TV show "The Sopranos," pleaded guilty on Tuesday to petty larceny and was sentenced to three years probation.

Iler could have received one year in prison for the misdemeanor, but under the terms of a plea agreement, prosecutors recommended the lighter sentence and Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Daniel FitzGerald accepted it.

Iler and three friends allegedly robbed two teen-age Brazilian boys of $40 on July 3, 2001, outside a New York delicatessen. The victims later identified Iler and his friends as the culprits.

The 17-year-old Iler, who plays A.J. Soprano, the sulky son of Tony Soprano on the hit HBO show about an organized crime family in New Jersey, made no statement after sentencing.

But his manager, Jeff Mitchell, said, "He wanted me to express how sorry he is for all the grief and trouble everyone went through."

In pretrial hearings that began on Monday, the police officer who arrested Iler testified that when he searched the actor he found a hot marijuana pipe and marijuana.

Also pleading guilty with Iler was one of his co-defendants Alban Selimaj, 17.

Michael Cournede, 20, who will go to trial next month, was found holding a box cutter when police searched him the night of his arrest.

One of the victims said the muggers brandished a box cutter and said, "Give us your money. Do you wanna die, do you wanna die?"

The fourth alleged mugger, who has not been identified because he is under 16, is being tried in family court

Thanks for that update, J Geoff (and the link)! Poor stupid kid! I hope he learned his lesson. I gotta' hand it to him, though. At least he didn't try to wiggle out of it by saying that the show made him do it (hmmm...wonder if it did?!?)!

gee, he had so much to lose over something like that. Where was his head that day...People would kill to even get a chance to have a part in a hit show....I bet they write it in next seasons plot line, you wait and see.

He got off easy. Celebs usually do. Notice that he didn't have to face the pot charge, either.
Now, what would I]really[/I] be neat, in the upcoming Sopranos season, is if Pacino makes a guest appearance and tells Carm, "Do you know that your son A.J. was arrested on some petty larceny charge you know nothing about?"

yes but she wasn't jet setting around the world...three years is light..how about some good old fashion labor, cleaning streets, feeding the poor in dirty rundown food kitchens and oh yea emptying bed pans in the hospital wards. A few more years and he will be just another child star gone astray. The books are full of them.
Next you will hear him cry "No one pays attention to me" or "My parents took all my money and blew it, I'm broke"...pass me a tissue will ya.

Gonna go off topic here. But I've got a point to make.

It depends how much weed was on him. Half the time the cops don't find its worth the paper work. I know plenty of people back when I was at school who got caught with it. Just a tiny bit. All the cops do is keep it or throw it away infront of your face. It wastes too much police time. Since it's been downgraded here in England police work has been much more effective in other crimes. Only if enough is found on you thats good enough to deal is the only time the cops would ever do anything.

great point, but they will normally take the little piss-ant and squeeze him for someone higher up the food chain...

Yeah, but not often, C.D. Unless it's a big amount of grass, they'll usually just try to scare the accused (well, if it's a youth...I got caught with a roach once!). They'll usually save the interrogation room for the "heavier" dope, like heroin and coke (or the more dangerous dope like PCP/angel dust, crack, etc.). Then, more often than not, it doesn't matter how little the amount, they'll try to nail the pusher if they can by, as you say, "squeezing" the little guy.