Tiffany Haddish Sentenced to 12 Months’ Probation After DUI Guilty Plea

Tiffany Haddish broke into a wide grin Tuesday as a Georgia judge told her she would face no additional jail time after she pleaded guilty to a single count of driving under the influence stemming from a 2022 traffic stop south of Atlanta.

The actress and comedian appeared via video link for the hearing in Fayette County, where she formally accepted responsibility for the January 2022 incident that began when a 911 caller reported a driver asleep behind the wheel at a traffic light. The judge announced that prosecutors had recommended dropping all remaining charges in exchange for her guilty plea on the DUI count.

The court sentenced Haddish to 12 months of probation and 24 hours in jail, though she received credit for time already served, meaning she will not return to custody. Her probation terms carry a strict set of conditions: she is barred from using drugs or alcohol, must submit to regular testing, is required to complete 40 hours of community service, must undergo a substance abuse evaluation, and has to finish a state-mandated DUI counseling program.

The case dates back to Haddish's arrest in January 2022, after she was pulled over while driving a white Ford Explorer through Peachtree City, Georgia, not long after performing at the Laugh Factory's 43rd annual free Thanksgiving feast. According to the original 911 call, someone reported seeing a person passed out behind the wheel of the SUV with a foot still resting on the brake. Haddish later told Jimmy Kimmel on his late-night show that she had been on her way to bring food to a friend when police stopped her.

This was not an isolated incident for the Girls Trip and Haunted Mansion star. In November 2023, Haddish was arrested a second time on suspicion of driving under the influence, this time in Beverly Hills. Police said they had responded to a report of a vehicle blocking a roadway with a driver possibly slumped over the steering wheel, and found Haddish when they arrived on scene. That case was ultimately resolved when she pleaded no contest to a reduced charge of reckless driving, avoiding a DUI conviction. She was sentenced to a year of probation along with 40 hours of community service, a driver's education course, and participation in the Mothers Against Drunk Driving Victim Impact Program.

At the time of the Beverly Hills arrest, Haddish's attorney, Alex Spiro, who has also represented high-profile clients including Jay-Z, Megan Thee Stallion, and Alec Baldwin, told Rolling Stone that his client had agreed to a lesser vehicle code violation rather than an admission of driving under the influence, and said she was eager to move past the episode entirely. That framing stands in contrast to Tuesday's outcome in the earlier Georgia case, where Haddish did plead guilty to the DUI charge itself, even as the bulk of the other allegations tied to the 2022 stop were dismissed as part of her plea agreement.

Haddish, a Grammy winner for her 2019 comedy album Black Mitzvah, has built a career spanning stand-up, film, and television since breaking through with her scene-stealing performance in 2017's Girls Trip.

Her legal troubles over the past several years, however, have repeatedly drawn headlines alongside her professional work, with Tuesday's sentencing closing the book on the older of her two DUI-related arrests while placing her under court supervision for the coming year.