[Elvira]

By John Osborne, Daily News Correspondent

Originally published — 3:52 p.m., July 22, 2007
Updated — 9:42 p.m., July 22, 2007



Ten thousand angels may not be enough for country music superstar and North Fort Myers native Mindy McCready.

The embattled crooner best known for her chart-topping singles "If I Don't Stay the Night" and "The Other Side of this Kiss" was arrested Saturday morning by the Lee County Sheriff's Office on misdemeanor battery and obstruction charges.

After a night of drinking, McCready got into a fight with her mother, according Sgt. Larry King of the Lee County Sheriff's Office. A female deputy had to take McCready to the ground to arrest her, King confirmed. In her jail booking mug shot. McCready has an obvious bloodied cut on her nose.

The incident Saturday was just the latest in a long line of altercations McCready has had with law enforcement officers over the past several years.

In August 2004, she was arrested in Tennessee on charges of using a fake prescription to buy OxyContin. She plead guilty to those charges in November of the same year and was sentenced to three years' probation, ordered to perform 200 hours of community service and fined $4,000.

In May 2005, she was charged with a DUI and with driving on a suspended license. She was subsequently released on $3,500 bail.

Just two days after that, McCready alleged that her ex-boyfriend Billy McKnight broke into her house and beat and choked her. McKnight was charged with attempted murder and aggravated burglary.

In July 2005, McCready was hit with a laundry list of charges in Arizona, including identity theft, unlawful imprisonment and hindering prosecution when police say that she and an accomplice stole a truck and kidnapped a woman.

The next week, McCready was hospitalized after being found unconscious in a hotel lobby in Indian Rocks Beach, Florida, following an unsuccessful suicide attempt using alcohol and a large amount of undisclosed drugs.

In August 2005, McCready violated her probation in Tennessee, and was apprehended in Florida later the same month and returned to Tennessee.

In September 2005, she was appealing the terms of her bail when she told the court that the Florida suicide attempt came after learning she was pregnant with McKnight's baby. Four days after that court appearance, McCready overdosed on antidepressants and was hospitalized again.

In July 2006, McCready was found not guilty of driving under the influence, but guilty of driving on a suspended license.

McCready will be back in court in September to face sentencing on her probation violation.

Despite her recent legal problems, McCready has led an extraordinary life.

She graduated from high school with honors in 1992 at the age of 16, moved to Nashville at 18 and was quickly signed to a label of Sony BMG Music Entertainment. In 2000, she was signed to Capitol Records, but dropped two years later due to poor sales. McCready was also once engaged to "Superman" actor Dean Cain.

In 2005, she went on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" to discuss her struggles with depression and her tumultuous relationship with McKnight.

McCready has one child, Zander Ryan McCready, who was born on March 25, 2006.

Source

I watched her on Larry King Live a couple of years ago and it sounded like she was going to turn her life around.