Heidi Fleiss Drives into Trouble

Former Hollywood madam charged with having meds without a prescription and DUI after arrest outside Vegas

By Natalie Finn Feb 08, 2008 1:34 AMTags

Apparently not all of Heidi Fleiss' records are meticulously kept. 

The former Hollywood madam  was arrested Thursday morning in a small Nevada town for allegedly driving under the influence and possessing Vicodin without a prescription, according to the Nye County Sheriff's Office.

Per a statement issued by authorities, deputies responded to reports of a possible drunk driver at around 9 a.m. in Pahrump, which is about 60 miles west of Las Vegas.

Upon searching the vehicle, officers found pills and popped her passenger, John Owen, for marijuana possession and being under the influence of a controlled substance.

Fleiss "was found to have prescription narcotics on her person, not in a prescription bottle, and could produce no evidence that the prescription pain medication had been prescribed to her," the sheriff's office said.

After being unable to produce either her Rx or her driver's license, Fleiss and Owen were arrested and taken to Nye County Detention Center, where she was booked on suspicion of driving without a license, possession of dangerous drugs without a prescription, being under the influence of a controlled substance and driving under the influence of a controlled substance.

Bail was set at $1,367 for Fleiss and $1,264 for Owen.

Fleiss told Reuters later that she and Owen, who's a plumber, were pulled over in the parking lot of a hardware store, where she had taken him to shop.

The high-profile prostitute peddler turned laundromat owner copped to having Vicodin in the car and said that she must appear in court to show proof of her prescription.

"I'm squeaky clean this time," Fleiss, who spent three years in prison for tax evasion, money laundering and pandering, said.

Fleiss, who has been talking about opening a brothel in which male escorts make their services available to female clients, currently owns a wash, fluff and fold emporium called Dirty Laundry in Pahrump. The 43-year-old Nevada transplant lives in nearby Crystal, where she told the New York Times last year she's planning to open her latest venture into the pay-for-sex field.