Hannah Montana star Mitchel Musso breaks silence after arrest claiming he 'wasn't drunk'
Hannah Montana star Mitchel Musso has broken his silence after being arrested over the weekend, claiming he ‘wasn’t drunk’.
Musso, who was known for playing Oliver Oken in the popular Disney series, was booked on Saturday 26 August on charges of charges of public intoxication and theft of an item under $100.
A press release from Rockwall County Police Department in Texas said officers responded to a ‘disturbance’ at a hotel in the local area.
Musso was accused of taking the bag of chips and eating them without paying, with police saying that when members of staff demanded the allegedly intoxicated man pay for what he had taken, he became verbally abusive and then left without paying anyway.
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The former Disney Channel star spent one night in jail before leaving the following afternoon (27 August) after posting a $1,000 bond.
In addition to the counts of public intoxication and theft below $100, Musso is also facing charges of expired registration, failure to display a driver's license and violating a 'promise to appear' notice.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, the actor claimed he had not been drunk at the time, arguing that the situation had been ‘unfortunate’, but was a ‘misunderstanding’.
He said: “I was absolutely not drunk or drinking, and there was 100 percent no theft.”
Musso denied even opening the bag of chips, claiming an ‘extremely disgruntled’ hotel worker had refused his service because he was dressed only in board shorts.
"I didn't know it was illegal not to wear shirts these days," he said, explaining that he had entered the hotel with friends from a docked boat on the harbor, hoping to replenish their supply of snacks.
"He told me to 'get the f**k out', were the words he used,” Musso said of the employee.
“And that kind of set me off. And he said, 'I'm gonna call the police' and I said go for it."
He added: "I was the one who was being verbally abused and also harassed. Someone ripping something out of your hand is not the most polite manners to have in this situation."
A manager at the hotel told Entertainment Weekly that the incident was ‘sensitive’ declining to comment in detail.
Responding to Musso’s claims that he was verbally harassed by a staff member, the manager said: "You know what, he can say whatever he wants to say. That's his story, that's fine."
Jess Hardiman