Scott Stapp Uncharged for Battery

Thu., Dec. 13, 2007 7:00 PM PST by Natalie Finn

Scott Stapp is apparently abiding by a new creed these days.

Florida prosecutors have dropped a domestic battery charge against the rocker, whose wife had accused him of hurling a bottle at her in their Boca Raton home in May.

In exchange, the "Arms Wide Open" crooner has completed 12 hours of anger management counseling, undergone substance-abuse evaluation and has rid himself of any or all weapons once in his possession, as per his deal with the court.

According to what Stapp's missus of nearly two years, Miss New York USA 2004 Jaclyn Nesheiwat, told police, Stapp returned to their house on the morning of May 20 hopped up on drugs after partying all night. He then became enraged when she inquired where he had been and tossed a glass bottle of Orangina at her, barely missing her face.

"She was in fear at that point that he might do something else, so that's when Palm Beach County deputies were called to the scene," a sheriff's spokesman told E! Online at the time.

The Palm Beach County State Attorney's Office originally charged Stapp, 34, with aggravated assault with intent to commit a felony, but later reduced the crime to a misdemeanor after a judge determined that the beverage bottle was not a deadly weapon.

Stapp remained free on supervised release, but he was ordered to abstain from alcohol and illegal drugs and make himself available for random drug testing.

Authorities said that the misdemeanor charge was officially dropped Monday after prosecutors were sufficiently satisfied that Stapp was on the road to recovery.

But while his rap sheet has remained relatively clean, this wasn't the first time that Stapp allegedly lost his cool in front of Nesheiwat.

Just hours after the couple tied the knot in February 2006, Stapp was arrested for public intoxication at LAX before boarding a flight to Hawaii. Prosecutors never pressed charges, but the sobriety test Stapp requested registered his blood-alcohol level at 0.18 percent, more than twice the state's legal limit for what constitutes intoxication.

No charges were filed following a brawl between Stapp and members of 311 at a Baltimore hotel in late 2005, either, but the incident prompted the singer to check into rehab.

Stapp's camp hasn't yet commented on the latest turn of legal events, but following his arrest in May, his label Windup Records referred to it as "a private matter between the members of the Stapp family, and we would hope that their privacy is respected."

The couple welcomed their first child together, daughter Milan Hayat Stapp, in January. Stapp also has a son, Jagger, from his first marriage.