Former Stone Temple Pilot Frontman Scott Weiland Lashes Out At TMZ, Impostor
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Former Stone Temple Pilot frontman Scott Weiland is lashing out at TMZ for falsely reporting he was in jail.
For nearly a month, the Beverly Hills Police Department had a man -- they thought was Weiland -- behind bars.
TMZ ran with the story -- only Weiland said he was never in jail. On Facebook he called the story "A nice piece of fiction."
Weiland said Thursday night, "TMZ, you will be hearing from my attorneys."
Police acknowledge now they had been holding a guy pretending to be Weiland.
The popular musician has had his share of run-ins with the law, but when he saw the TMZ report he lashed out on Facebook.
Beverly Hills Police said they arrested a man for shoplifting razor blades at a local Rite-Aid back on July 26th.
The man told police he was singer Scott Weiland and they bought the story.
They booked the pretend Weiland for burglary and drug possession (he allegedly had meth) and was behind bars all this time.
On Thursday evening, police issued the following statement:
"[We] discovered through an FBI fingerprint return that the subject arrested was not Scott Weiland. The fingerprint positively identified the individual as Jason Michael Hurley."
In addition to the burglary and drug charges, Hurley, 44, now faces a charge of giving false information to an officer.
Police did not explain how the mix-up took place or how they conduct regular ID checks.
LA County Sheriff's told TMZ that the impostor has red hair like Weiland.
It was unclear Thursday if the Beverly Hills Police Department or TMZ has apologized to Weiland. TMZ updated their story to say Weiland was never in custody.