After being arrested June 18 in Burbank for domestic violence, rapper Tone Loc pled no contest this week to two criminal charges: one count of corporal injury to a spouse, and one count of possession of an unregistered assault weapon. The unregistered weapon, a Colt AR-15 Sporter, was discovered by Burbank police during the domestic violence investigation but was not used in that assault.

Tone Loc, 45, whose legal name is Anthony Smith, came to prominence as a rapper in the late 1980s with his double-platinum 1988 hit “Wild Thing,” which reached No. 1 on the U.S. dance charts. He followed up in 1989 with the hit “Funky Cold Medina” along with a few more singles, but he has largely focused his career on acting since the early 1990s. Tone Loc has appeared in numerous films and television series, including the TV shows “Living Single” and “Chowder” and movies including 1994’s “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective.”

Interestingly, although he pled no contest to the criminal charges, the singer’s decision to do so was not based on a plea agreement, as is more typically the case. Instead, he chose to enter the no-contest plea and accept the Superior Court’s sentence. He was sentenced to one day in county jail, 30 days of community service, three years of probation, and a full year of weekly anger management counseling sessions.

As we mentioned in our June 22 post about the original domestic violence arrest, police provided very few details about the nature of the June 18 incident. It is also unclear whether the rapper will be allowed to have his Colt AR-15 Sporter back. However, many jurisdictions prohibit those convicted of any domestic violence offense from possessing firearms of any type.

Source: Los Angeles Times, “Rapper Tone Loc pleads no contest to charges,” Richard Winton, Oct 3, 2011