Fred Willard Offered Alternative Option After Arrest

Jul 21, 2012 06:14 PM ET
by Sadie Gennis

Fred Willard

Fred Willard has been offered the option to enroll in counseling courses to avoid formal charges in his lewd conduct case, The Los Angeles Times reports.

According to the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office, if Willard completes the requirements of the diversion program within a year, he will not face formal prosecution for his arrest. On Wednesday, the actor was taken into custody after police claimed they found the actor in a Hollywood movie theater with his penis exposed and in his hand.

Willard had a previous lewd conduct arrest in 1990, prosecutors said.

PBS on firing Fred Willard: "It would become a distraction"

Though the courses will only cost Willard $380, his arrest already cost Willard his job as the narrator of PBS' Market Warriors.

Willard's attorney maintains the arrest was only a misunderstanding and his client did nothing wrong.