Ex-‘Idol’ finalist arrested for parole violation

Jessica Sierra jailed less than 2 weeks after pleading no contest to battery

Jessica Sierra was charged Saturday with disorderly intoxication, resisting arrest and violating conditions of her parole on earlier felony battery and possession charges.

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updated 9:16 p.m. ET Dec. 2, 2007

TAMPA, Fla. - Former "American Idol" finalist Jessica Sierra was jailed early Saturday after a drunken confrontation with police and onlookers, authorities said.

The arrest comes less than two weeks after she pleaded no contest to charges of battery and possession of cocaine.

Sierra, 22, was charged Saturday with disorderly intoxication, resisting arrest and violating conditions of her parole on earlier felony battery and possession charges. She was being held without bond.

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Sierra, who was supposed to be completing a drug-rehabilitation program to be televised nationally, was arrested at a bar in Ybor City at 2:10 a.m. Saturday.

"As the defendant was taken into custody, she attempted to push away and flee the scene," the arresting officers wrote.

Her attorney, John Fitzgibbons, said he heard about his client's latest run-in with the law Saturday and had not spoken with her.

"I've been getting calls all day, but don't have any comment," he said.

On Nov. 19, Circuit Judge Gregory Holder sentenced Sierra to 12 months probation and random drug screening. She was accused of hitting a man on the head with a glass at a Tampa nightspot in April. Officers then found a small amount of cocaine while searching her afterward at the county jail.

A top-10 contestant on the show in 2005, Sierra entered a California rehab facility in July that was to be documented on VH1's reality show "Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew," sometime early next year.