LAS VEGAS - A justice of the peace ruled there was probable cause to hold former "Diff'rent Strokes" co-star Dana Plato on charges of robbing a video store clerk at gunpoint.

James Bixler, who issued the ruling Friday, also reduced Plato's bail from $20,000 to $13,000. She remained jailed at the Clark County Detention Center.

Plato, 26, was arrested after she approached officers investigating the robbery of the Lakes Video Store and a clerk identified her as the person who robbed her of $164. She was booked for investigation of armed robbery and use of a deadly weapon in the commission of a crime.

Actress Dana Plato, who had the role of Kimberly Drummond on television's "Diff'rent Strokes," asked for a job picking up trash at her apartment complex 15 minutes before she allegedly robbed a video store on Feb. 28. "The job was already filled," said Linda Schlax, manager of the Anchor Village II apartments in Las Vegas, Nev. Plato, 26, who is free on bail, is charged with threatening a video store clerk with a pellet gun and the theft of $164.

Happy to be going home

Dana Plato, former child co-star of the hit television series " Diff'rent Strokes", was ordered to perform 200 hours of community service and placed on probation for five years Tuesday for robbing a Las Vegas video store. Plato, 26, who prayed and clutched a string of rosary beads while being sentenced, told reporters afterward: "I am going to stay sober and help other people. I am just real happy to be going home." Plato, who could have been sentenced to one to five years in prison, pleaded guilty to charges she entered a video store Feb. 26 with a pellet gun and robbed it of $164. Plato is a restaurant waitress who earlier worked in Las Vegas dry cleaning shops. She earned up to $25,000 a week when she was playing sweet-natured Kimberly, the daughter of a businessman who adopted two brothers, played by Gary Coleman and Todd Bridges in the eight-year series.

In trouble again

Former actress Dana Plato, who starred on television's "Diff'rent Strokes," is back on the wrong side of the law, charged with violating terms of her probation for a video store holdup last February. Plato, 27, was arrested this week in Las Vegas and faces up to six years in prison. Authorities refused to specify the probation violation. She pleaded guilty in June to the robbery and received a six-year suspended sentence and five years' probation.

One last chance

"Diff'rent Strokes" child star Dana Plato got one last chance from a judge after pleading that she needed help for a drug problem. "I'm sick. I really need help," Plato, 27, said at hearing Tuesday in Las Vegas. Plato, on probation for robbing a video store last year, was arrested last month for falsifying Valium prescriptions. She faced a six-year sentence for violating her probation, but District Judge Stephen Huffaker heeded her pleas and allowed her to remain free.

A source of the problem

The Nevada Board of Pharmacy has cited pharmacist Charles Kotzan, 63, of Clinic Pharmacy, for not following professional standards and fined him $1,500 for supplying actress Dana Plato with more than a year's supply of Valium in three weeks. Plato, 27, who is on probation for robbing a video store, pleaded guilty last week to forging prescriptions and will be sentenced June 9.

Suspended sentence

Actress Dana Plato received a suspended sentence and five years' probation Thursday for forging prescriptions for Valium. "If I hadn't gotten caught, it could have been the worst thing that happened to me, because I could have died of a drug overdose," she told reporters in Las Vegas. The probation is consecutive with five years' probation imposed after she pleaded guilty to robbing a Las Vegas video store Feb. 28, 1991. Plato, 27, who pleaded guilty to forging prescriptions, said being watched for the next 10 years doesn't bother her. "I don't mind being watched. With a disease like mine, it's nice to have someone looking over your shoulder."

Plato free to travel

Dana Plato, former star of TV's "Diff'rent Strokes," is free to travel while completing probation for robbing a video store. The 30-year-old actress, who was placed on up to five years' probation in 1991, needs to travel so she can look for work, said her lawyer Michael Davidson. District Judge Stephen Huffaker lifted the travel ban. A second judge agreed to release Plato from probation imposed in 1992 for a drug offense. Plato has since been in drug and alcohol rehabilitation programs.

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Date: MON 08/07/1995
Section: A Page: 2

Diff'rent strokes

You'll see plenty of Dana Plato in Live Bait Theatre's production of "Last of the Red Hot Lovers" - she plays all three female leads. The actress, now 30, spent eight years on the TV sitcom "Diff'rent Strokes" and went on to a series of highly publicized run-ins with the law as well as drug and alcohol rehabilitation. But she persevered and now welcomes the chance to do theater, even at a small regional company in Sackville, New Brunswick. "I'm learning a lot, doing this play, about myself and about acting." In January, a Las Vegas judge agreed to allow Plato to travel to look for work while completing probation for robbing a video store. The play opens Thursday.