General Hospital star Haley Pullos finished a three-months jail sentence for DUI Monday – but was then immediately placed on probation for five years and ordered to work 200 hours of community service.
The glamorous 26-year-old actress – who pleaded no contest in April to driving the wrong way on a Los Angeles freeway while she was drunk and high, causing a near-fatal crash – also lost her driver’s license for a year and must complete a nine-month alcohol education program and undergo mental health treatment.
The sentence was handed down by Judge Terry Smerling at a court hearing in Pasadena, California, where he also ordered Pullos to pay more than $8,000 in restitution to the injured driver whose car she smashed into.
Pullos – who let her long blonde hair flow over orange jump suit prior to being released later in the day – was warned by the judge never to drink and drive again.
And, he added, ‘God forbid you cause an accident in the future and somebody dies, you will be charged with murder.’
General Hospital star Haley Pullos, 26, appeared in court on Monday in an orange jump suit as she was released from jail and placed on probation
Pullos appeared to be in better spirits as she left the courthouse, although she stepped out to freedom in a decidedly unglamorous black, paper jail release suit
About an hour after Monday’s brief hearing, smiling Pullos was released from a side gate of the Pasadena courthouse, telling DailyMail.com exclusively, ‘I’m very happy to be going home.’
Wearing a black paper jail release suit and sunglasses and holding a book and a carton of orange juice, she ran into the arms of her waiting parents, Alex and Judy Pullos, hugging them as she cried tears of joy at being free after 90 days behind bars.
Also greeting her was a bearded man believed to be one of her two brothers who was holding the family dog, and actress Nancy Lee Grahn, 68 – who played Pullos’s mother on General Hospital.
‘Thank you so much for coming,’ Pullos told Grahn before heading off with her parents in a gray Ford Fusion.
Earlier in the proceedings, Judge Smerling granted Pullos her request to take a two week trip out of the country in the fall with her parents, Alex and Judy Pullos, who were in court as their daughter was released.
Pullos – who prosecutors said had a blood alcohol level of 0.25 per cent, more than three times the legal limit – originally pleaded not guilty to two DUI charges and another count of hit-and-run following the April 2023 accident.
Although she was freed, the 26-year-old also lost her driver’s license for a year and must complete a nine-month alcohol education program and undergo mental health treatment
Pullos beamed as she hugged her parents following the brief hearing
Pullos also embraced her ‘TV mom’ – actress Nancy Lee Grahn, who played Pullos’ mother on General Hospital – outside the courthouse as she was released on Monday
The scene after Pullos collided with another motorist in a head-on collision in April 2023
Moments before the horror crash, Pullos and hit a parked car as she drove erratically through Pasadena, California
But in a deal with LA’s District Attorney, she changed her plea to no contest on one DUI and in exchange, the DA dropped the other one plus the hit and run.
Pullos – who started playing Molly Lansing-Davis on the popular daytime soap opera when she was 11 – was also ordered Monday to pay $8,260 in restitution to 24 year-old Courtney Wilder, whose car she collided head-on with on the 134 Ventura Freeway in Pasadena.
Wilder, who was rushed in critical condition to a local hospital to undergo emergency surgery, is now suing the actress in civil court, seeking damages for negligence.
Pullos was charged with a first count of felony DUI causing injury and a second of driving with over 0.08 blood alcohol content causing injury. The first count was the one that was dismissed in the plea deal.
Also dismissed was a hit-and-run charge resulting from Pullos running into a parked car just before the freeway crash. But though prosecutors dropped that count, she will still have to pay restitution to the owner of the car she damaged.
Police say that Pullos, who was dropped from General Hospital a month after the accident, drove her white 2019 Ford Fusion westbound on to the eastbound 134 Freeway and smashed into Wilder’s Kia which was traveling east at 60mph.
Earlier this year, Pullos pleaded no contest in April to driving the wrong way on a Los Angeles freeway while she was drunk and high, causing a near-fatal crash
Pullos is best known for her roles in General Hospital, House and The Collector
Weeks after the crash Pullos announced she was taking a break from General Hospital in which she played Molly Lansing-Davis who dated TJ Ashford played by Tajh Bellow
Both cars were completely wrecked and when first responders arrived, say cops, Pullos was unable to get out of her car, so firefighters had to use the jaws of life to prise her out.
Several mini bottles of tequila, plus edible marijuana wrappers were reportedly found in her car.
And police at the crash scene reported that she smelled of alcohol and had slurred speech and glassy eyes.
Wilder accuses Pullos in his lawsuit of ‘attacking’ and abusing first responders in a ‘rage’ at the accident site, and even hitting and yelling at a fireman for touching her expensive designer shirt.
‘Haley Pullos acted maliciously and without any regard for the safety of others, as evidenced by her rage when she was pulled from her vehicle by first responders,’ said Wilder in a written declaration to the court.
Pullos’ parents look on as their daughter appeared in Los Angeles Superior Court on Monday
At Monday’s hearing, Judge Terry Smerling warned the actress never to drink and drive again, adding that if she caused ‘an accident in the future and somebody dies, you will be charged with murder’
When she was arrested, prosecutors Pullos had a blood alcohol level of 0.25 per cent, more than three times the legal limit
Pullos seen leaving court, where she walked free on probation was ordered to pay more than $8,000 in restitution to the driver whose car she smashed into
’She acted maliciously by attacking the officers and yelling profanities in front of witnesses and directed toward those who were trying to help her,’ Wilder said in court papers.
‘In her fit of rage, Haley Pullos battered a firefighter and yelled at him to take his hands off her “$400 f***ing shirt.”
‘Despite having just caused two accidents, one of which resulted in serious, life-threatening injuries, she cared more about her overpriced clothing than she did the safety and all-being of the victim of her reckless, intentional and despicable conduct.
‘As more evidence of her abhorrent behavior, Haley Pullos continued to fight medical staff and was forced to be sedated.
‘Not only was she driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol, but she was drinking behind the wheel, as evidenced by the edible wrappers and empty alcohol bottles which were found in her vehicle,’ Wilder added.
Pullos – who was spotted by DailyMail.com checking into a luxury rehab facility in Malibu a few weeks after the crash – is fighting Wilder’s civil lawsuit against her, insisting it was he who was to blame, not her.
And she is asking the judge to dismiss the suit and order Wilder to pay her legal fees.
In January, Wilder added Pasadena’s No Comment Lounge – where Pullos was working as a hostess the night of the accident – as a defendant in his civil lawsuit, accusing the popular nightspot of plying her with booze, then letting her drive herself home.
Wilder is also suing the State of California Transportation Department, claiming the road where the accident happened is in ‘dangerous condition.’
