For the second time this month, Pamela Bach has gone courting and wound up on the wrong end of the gavel.
Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Stephen P. Pfahler has given the former Mrs. David Hasselhoff one week to turn herself in on a hit-and-run charge due to a botched booking last January.
Pfahler ordered Bach to be fingerprinted, photographed and released and return to face the court on Aug. 6. The city attorney's office says the move is largely "procedural," but should she not comply with the order, a bench warrant could be issued for her arrest.
Through no fault of her own, Bach was improperly booked after a minor accident in North Hollywood on Jan. 22. Arresting officers failed to follow the typical procedure of taking her prints and mug shot.
Bach's attorneys old (Peter Knecht) and new (Nicole Vafeades) have long claimed that Bach was a responsible citizen in dealing with the accident, getting out of her car to investigate the damage she inflicted on the other vehicle (negligible, in her estimation) before driving off. However, a witness claims Bach did no such thing and instead fled the scene.
The person wrote down Bach's license plate number and tipped off police of the alleged infraction, resulting in the misdemeanor count. No drugs or alcohol were involved in the incident.
Sources close to the actress told E! News that the "minor fender-bender" had been "blown out of proportion because she is a celebrity," adding that it this were any other alleged hit-and-runner, it would not be headline-worthy. Bach herself expressed similar sentiments outside the courtroom today.
"I have tried to resolve the situation...you see, now they want to get me booked," she told TMZ. "They have done the extreme. I have bent over backwards to settle this."
It's been a rough few weeks for Bach, whose credits include guest roles on Hasselhoff's Baywatch and Knight Rider. She is still smarting from a ruling on June 15 in which Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Mark Juhas awarded Hasselhoff custody of the duo's two daughters, 14-year-old Hayley and 17-year-old Taylor.
The ex-couple, whose divorce was made final last July after 16 years together, had previously been sharing custody of the girls, until the video of a drunken, hamburger-craving Hasselhoff reignited their court battle.
For his part, Hasselhoff has been ordered to undergo periodic alcohol tests. As for Bach, she was awarded visitation rights on alternate weekends and each Wednesday night for dinner.
Hasselhoff also made it clear that his daughters would be able to visit their mother whenever they so wished.