Mitchel Musso of 'Hannah Montana' fame sees public drunkenness and theft case dismissed
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Mitchel Musso, who played Oliver Oken in the Disney series “Hannah Montana,” was arrested in August on suspicion of public intoxication and theft. Three months later, his case has been dismissed, the actor said Friday on social media.
“Thank you guys for standing with me during this time, want to thank you all for listening and being there. Sry couldn’t talk about it. Had to wait till the truth came out,” Musso wrote Friday morning on his Instagram story, topping the text post off with a red heart and shrug emojis.
No reason has been provided for the dismissal of the charges, and a representative for the city of Rockwall, Texas, told TMZ that neither body cam footage nor further details will be released.
Read more: What are the 'Hannah Montana' stars up to now?
On the night of Aug. 26, police in Rockwall received a 911 call from someone “reporting a disturbance at a hotel” in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Officers were told a person who appeared to be drunk had entered the hotel and stolen a bag of chips from its food market.
“When the subject was asked to pay for them, he became verbally abusive and left without rendering payment,” police said in a press release.
In addition to showing “signs of intoxication,” the 32-year-old also had several outstanding traffic warrants. Ultimately, Musso was arrested, spent the night in jail and was released on $1,000 bond the next day.
He denied the allegations.
Read more: Disney star Mitchel Musso arrested after allegedly getting drunk and stealing bag of chips
“I was absolutely not drunk or drinking, and there was 100% no theft,” Musso told Entertainment Weekly shortly after his arrest. “It’s unfortunate, it’s a misunderstanding.”
According to the actor, a hotel employee had refused him service because he was wearing only board shorts. He had spent the evening on a boat with friends.
Musso said the hotel employee told him to “get the f— out” and threatened to call the police.
"I was the one who was being verbally abused and also harassed,” he said, adding that the employee, whom he described as “agitated from the get-go,” grabbed the chips out of his hand.
“Someone ripping something out of your hand is not the most polite manners to have in this situation,” he said.
Musso also attributed his arrest to two unpaid tickets from 2019, which he said had been sent to his former residence in Rockwall.
“I haven’t lived in Rockwall for years,” the Texas native said. “I guess they'd been sending it to my old house there. And it had become a warrant and they used it against me. So since then, all of those warrants have been paid and the matter has been resolved."
But a representative for the Rockwall Municipal Court told Entertainment Weekly on Friday that while the intoxication and theft charges had been dropped, Musso still must deal with charges of having an expired registration, failing to display a driver's license and violating a promise to appear in court. Those additional charges were not listed on the original arrest report, EW said.
It was unclear whether Musso or the court representative was correct.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
