Comedian, actor and former Saturday Night Live star Pete Davidson has reached an agreement with the New York City Fire Department to settle his reckless driving charges in California through community service, officials said Monday.
Davidson is from Staten Island and his father, Scott, was a New York City firefighter who died during the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center. That experience inspired Mr. Davidson’s 2020 film The King of Staten Island.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office filed a reckless driving charge (a misdemeanor) against Davidson last month. The newspaper said he crashed his Mercedes-Benz into a house near Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills in March. The Los Angeles Times reported. The Times reported that no one was injured.
A judge put Mr. Davidson into an 18-month conversion program on July 19, according to a statement Monday by the district attorney’s office. He has to pay compensation, attend 12 hours of traffic school, visit a morgue to learn what happens to reckless driving victims, and do 50 hours of community service.
Davidson’s attorney said community services were “likely to be completed” at the New York Fire Department, according to a statement. Here are the details of the diversion program: TMZ reported earlier.
Lawyers for Davidson did not respond to a request for comment.
Fire Department spokeswoman Amanda Farinacci called Davidson “the son of a 9/11 hero” and did not give details, but said the department was “delighted” to give him the opportunity to complete his mission. (Davidson could also fulfill other terms of the diversion program in New York, according to the district attorney’s office).
Davidson, who worked as a stand-up comic until joining the cast of “Saturday Night Live” in the fall of 2014, left NBC after last year’s season finale. His latest project is the streaming series “Bapkis”
Doing community service in New York might allow Mr. Davidson to explore other projects related to his Staten Island roots. It’s a decommissioned ferry used by Davidson and fellow Saturday Night Live performer Colin Jost, a Staten Islander. — Bought last year with other investors for $280,000.
One of the visions for the dilapidated ship was to transform it into what one of its investors called an “arts and entertainment venue.” However, Davidson said in an interview with ”Ferry” that he feels uncertain about the future of the ferry.entertainment tonight” last month.
“I have no idea what’s going on with that,” he said. “Me and Colin bought the ferry a year ago in great shock, and we are just figuring it out.”
