Nearly two weeks after his high profile resignation triggered by a second DUI conviction, former Sacramento television personality Mark S. Allen is opening up about his addiction and arrest.
In a video published by the Sacramento Bee newspaper on Wednesday, Allen — whose legal name is Mark Stell — thanked the off-duty police officer who called 9-1-1 after seeing the entertainment reporter driving erratically last December.
A second tip from a concerned citizen led police to Allen’s home. He failed a field sobriety test and was taken into custody. He was booked into the Placer County Jail and was quietly released after posting bond; he continued to appear on KMAX-TV’s (Channel 31) “Good Day Sacramento” and on the radio until the Sacramento News & Review exposed his arrest in a news story.
The News & Review article was published December 17. Station management at KMAX and KZZO, both owned by CBS Corporation, suspended him the following day. He resigned from both stations earlier this month, a move that was almost certainly encouraged by station management.
“Don’t get me wrong: I enjoyed drinking a lot,” Allen told the Bee on Wednesday. But now, three months into recovery, “I’ve just found other ways of enjoying life.”
After pleading no contest, Allen said he will “pay the same penalty as anyone else who was arrested for DUI.” That penalty involves Allen spending 12 days in jail, paying “thousands” of dollars in fines and attending mandatory alcohol treatment classes, the Bee reported.
