Downey was to have been released from jail on March 29. Now he will leave on April 1 to enter a residential drug treatment center for the remainder of his six-month sentence. "To allow one inmate to pursue his chosen profession, and to deny fellow inmates the same privilege, is to sanction discrimination," wrote Justice Roger Boren in his decision.
In September 1996 Downey pleaded no contest after police stopped him for speeding and found cocaine, heroin and a pistol in the back of the pickup truck he was driving. He was ordered to jail in December for violating his parole.