Howie Day gets probation for airline rowdiness

BOSTON — Pop singer Howie Day won't face any jail time for his rowdy behavior on a Boston-bound American Airlines flight in December.

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Day, 25, was ordered on Wednesday to serve one year of probation on a charge of interfering with a flight crew for his behavior on a Dec. 21 flight from Dallas to Boston.

Day, of Brewer, Maine, was returning home for the holidays on American Airlines Flight 2250 when prosecutors say he became verbally abusive to the flight crew.

As conditions of his probation, Day must write letters of apology to American Airlines, as well as the passengers, captain and an attendant aboard the flight. He must also complete an alcohol counseling program, said David Procopio, a spokesman for Suffolk District Attorney Dan Conley.

Day's attorney, Paul V. Kelly, said Day took a sleeping pill to help him fall asleep aboard the flight, then had a couple of alcoholic drinks.

He disputed prosecutors' description of what happened on the plane, saying it was "inaccurate and overblown."

Prosecutors said he smoked a cigarette, kicked the backs of chairs and was verbally abusive to the flight crew. Kelly said he did not smoke and had a loud altercation with a passenger, not the flight crew.

If Day complies with the conditions of the probation, the charge of interfering with a flight crew will be dismissed.

"There were no injuries, the operation of the flight itself was not disturbed, so we feel this is an appropriate punishment," Procopio said.

It wasn't Day's first brush with the law.

In March 2004, Day was arrested in Madison, Wis., for allegedly locking a woman in the bathroom of a tour bus after she refused his sexual advances. He then broke the cell phone of another woman who tried to call police, according to the criminal complaint.

The singer-songwriter received critical acclaim for his 2003 album, "Stop All the World Now," which featured the hit song, "Collide."