Despite acting as the muse for such earwormy little ditties like Jimmy Fallon’s “The Ballad of Steven Slater” and being invited to the Emmy Awards, this summer’s biggest celebrity who’s not a celebrity, Steven Slater, still had his day in court this past Tuesday.

Sort of.

The former Jet Blue (and by former, I mean, he was still employed with the company up until last week?!) employee appeared on charges of trespassing, reckless endangerment, and criminal mischief, but ultimately the case was adjourned until next month, giving Slater enough time to be evaluated for participation in an alternative sentencing program that would address mental health issues such as anger management and alcohol abuse.

Get it? Because he grabbed two beers and jumped.

Sorry – couldn’t resist.

Anyway, NBC New York reports that upon completion of the program “the D.A. would either lower the charges to misdemeanors, violations or drop the charges entirely.”

And apparently, District Attorney Richard Brown is pretty pleased with the deal:

The evaluation – and possible participation – is, as I said, occurring at the defendant’s request and represents in my opinion, a recognition of the seriousness of that which occurred [...] I’m looking ultimately to find a means and a disposition over here that both balances the seriousness of the charges against the needs of the defendant.

According to Howard Bragman, Slater’s publicist, everyone’s taking the situation seriously:

He has a great team in place now, including Daniel Horowitz, Letterman’s attorney, and we’re all taking this very seriously [...] Let me give you an example: He was invited to go to the Emmy Awards with a huge celebrity. It would have generated enormous amounts of publicity, and we turned it down. We knew it wasn’t the right thing to do despite it being a huge media opportunity.

Admittedly, passing on a trip to the Emmys when you have court in just a few days – for such a notorious case – is probably a wise move. The kind of move a good publicist would advise.

Which is why I’m having a difficult time taking any of this too seriously.

The man has a publicist.

In any event, I do hope whatever mental health issues Steven Slater has are addressed and, after doing whatever his sentence means for him to do, the man can move on with his life.

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Steven Slater To Undergo Mental Health Evaluation | Celebrity … : DynamicSystems (September 10, 2010)

    Last reviewed: 9 Sep 2010