Kid Rock gets probation in Waffle House fight

updated 3:57 p.m. ET July 22, 2008

DECATUR, Ga. - Kid Rock has been sentenced to a year’s probation and fined $1,000 for his role in a fight at a suburban Atlanta Waffle House last fall.

The DeKalb County solicitor’s office said the 37-year-old was also sentenced Monday to six hours of anger management counseling and 80 hours of community service.

The entertainer, whose real name is Robert J. Ritchie, pleaded no contest to one count of simple battery. Four counts of battery were dropped.

Ritchie’s tour bus stopped at the Waffle House about 5 a.m. on Oct. 21 after a performance in downtown Atlanta. An exchange of words with a customer escalated into a fight that spilled from the restaurant into the parking lot.

Ritchie and five members of his entourage were arrested. They appeared with him in court, and two of them pleaded no contest and received similar sentences of probation and community service. The judge dropped charges against the other three.

“After viewing the videotape, it was decided that they weren’t involved,” said Artealia Gilliard, spokeswoman for Solicitor-General Robert D. James Jr.

Ritchie’s attorney, Darryl Cohen, said Tuesday that Ritchie was “not terribly unhappy” with the outcome although he believed he was not at fault.

“I think my client is satisfied,” Cohen said. “He would have liked to have tried it. He came within a hairbreadth of going to trial.”

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