Lila Leeds and Robert Mitchum were sentenced to sixty days in the Los Angeles County Jail. After serving fifty days, they were released on March 30, 1949.
Mitchum went on to greater stardom and Lila had no job offers. Within a short time she was signed to act in the anti marijuana exploitation picture “Wild Weed.”
Two weeks after her release, Lila was involved in an auto accident. She rear ended a car on Sunset Boulevard. A friend took her from the scene and she escaped a driving-while-intoxicated charge. The starlet was out of control and under the influence of undesirable “friends.”
Two months later Lila was arrested on a drunk driving charge. This generated much unwelcome publicity and Lila, after finishing “Wild Weed”, couldn’t get any movie roles. She paid a fine for the drunk driving case and was warned to get no more adverse publicity.
She spent the rest of the Summer doing personal appearances at showings of “Wild Weed.” In September, a former agent of Lila and Robert Mitchum named her as being part of a prostitution extortion ring in Hollywood. Lila denied this untrue accusation but there were many headlines which sullied her reputation further. She then claimed that Mitchum had been set up for a frame in the marijuana bust of the year before. This was likely true but it generated more controversial coverage in the newspapers.
In November of 1949, Lila was banished from California for five years as a result of violating her probation. Her arrests and notoriety resulted in her being accused of “blackening the name of her profession.” She was also accused of seeking publicity by her “actions.”
She flew to Chicago where a promising future awaited.
