MULLUMBIMBY, Australia — Australian actor and director Simon Baker, best known for his role as Patrick Jane in the CBS drama series “The Mentalist,” avoided a conviction Wednesday after pleading guilty to driving under the influence of alcohol near his rural home.
The 55-year-old appeared in Mullumbimby Local Court in New South Wales for sentencing after pleading guilty the week before to driving with a blood alcohol level exceeding the legal limit of 0.05%.
Baker co-starred with Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway in the Oscar-nominated 2006 film ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ before starring as a former professional psychic who became a consultant to the California Bureau of Investigation for eight seasons until 2015 on the hit series ‘ The Mentalist’. Since then, he has worked on several shows and films, including a film adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun, directed by Taika Waititi and expected to be released in 2025.
Magistrate Kathy Crittenden accepted Baker was remorseful and was unlikely to drive after drinking again. She released him on a nine-month good behavior bond, without a conviction recorded. Australian judges have the discretion not to impose sentences against first-time offenders in exceptional circumstances.
Police reported seeing Baker’s electric car driving erratically at 2.11am on July 20 in the fashionable Byron Bay region where he lives.
That was hours after a faulty software update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike wreaked global technology havoc, disrupting airlines, hospitals, government buildings and financial systems. Crittenden said the outage knocked police systems offline and an electronic breath test could not be performed on Baker.
She said police resorted to an “old fashioned sobriety test.”
Police reported Baker was unsteady on his feet and smelled of alcohol. He told police he had drunk four glasses of wine at dinner since 6 p.m., about eight hours earlier. He was alone in the car.
Baker was “very courteous and cooperative” and “very remorseful for his actions,” Crittenden said. Baker had since completed a rehabilitation program for road traffic offenders, the court was told.
Crittenden said four character references were submitted to the court regarding Baker’s contributions to the community, significant remorse and showing his behavior was out of character.
“The court has little difficulty in finding that Mr Baker is remorseful for his offending and is unlikely to offend again,” she said.
