Robert Downey Jr.’s Son Busted On Felony Drug Charges – Like Father Like Son?


Robert Downey Jr.’s son, Indio, has been charged with felony drug possession.

Police say Robert Downey Jr.’s son was spotted in a car smoking “something” out of a pipe while traveling in the passenger seat of a car in West Hollywood in June, according to TMZ. When the police investigated, they found Robert Downey Jr.’s son holding cocaine, and Indio has now been charged with felony possession of a controlled substance and misdemeanor possession of drug paraphernalia.

The 20-year-old actor appeared in the film, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang with his father in 2005 at the tender age of nine.

Hopefully, Indio isn’t following in his old man’s footsteps.

Between 1996 and 2001, Robert Downey Jr. was arrested numerous times for drug-related offenses. In 1996, Robert Downey Jr. was arrested for speeding down Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood while in possession of cocaine, heroin, and an unloaded.357 Magnum handgun. The very next month, while on parole, a high Robert Downey Jr. wandered into his neighbor’s house and fell asleep in one of the beds. That stunt, in conjunction with the previous charge, earned him a three-year probation along with compulsory drug testing.

In 1997, Robert Downey Jr. missed one of the drug tests and was sentenced to six months in the Los Angeles County jail. Robert Downey Jr. missed another drug test in 1999, and the actor was sentenced to a three-year stay at the California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State Prison in Corcoran, California.

At that point, Robert Downey Jr. had become toxic to movie studios and producers. Some of them predicted Robert Downey Jr. would never work in Hollywood again.

At his 1999 sentencing, Robert Downey Jr. told the judge:

“It’s like I’ve got a shotgun in my mouth with my finger on the trigger, and I like the taste of the gun metal.”

Robert Downey Jr. was released from Corcoran after a year when a judge determined that his collective time in incarceration facilities qualified him for early release.

A week after his release in 2000, Robert Downey Jr. surprised everyone by joining the cast of the hit show, Ally McBeal. But the actor hadn’t yet kicked his habits.

In November of 2000, officers responding to an anonymous 911 call at a Culver City hotel found Downey in possession of cocaine and Valium.

In 2001, after being arrested for walking barefoot in a park under the influence of a controlled substance while on parole, Robert Downey Jr. made the decision to go to rehab. When he got out, he relied on friends like Mel Gibson and producer Joel Silver to return to acting under some strict guidelines. Reportedly while filming Gothika, Silver withheld 40 percent of Robert Downey Jr.’s paycheck until the film wrapped with no addiction problems from the actor.

Robert Downey Jr. clawed his way out from under the yoke of addiction. In 2008, the actor hit the mother lode with two separate hit films, Tropic Thunder and, of course, Iron Man, which spawned a comic-book movie empire.

As a first-time offender, Indio will automatically be entitled to a drug diversion program, according to the Daily Mail.

Here’s hoping that Indio can learn a lesson or two from his dad’s turbulent history with drugs, because when it comes to problems with controlled substances, few have more experience than Robert Downey Jr.

[Image via Zimbio]

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