THE SON of Real Housewives of Orange County star, Lauri Peterson, has been arrested on drug charges after a routine traffic stop on January 10, 2022.
Peterson’s son, Josh Waring’s arrest comes less than a year after he was arrested for riding in a rental car that was reported stolen from John Wayne Airport.
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Who is Josh Waring?
Josh Waring, 33, is the son of famed reality star Lauri Peterson who first appeared on the first season of the Real Housewives of Orange County.
She continued to appear on the reality show for four seasons but decided to take a step back when Waring was arrested in 2008.
“This wasn’t something I took lightly,” she told The Orange County Register in 2008.
She added, “We talked this through. This took me weeks to try to figure out. It wasn’t a rash decision. Once I bailed [my son] Josh out of jail, I just really needed my privacy. It needed to be as much a private matter as possible.”
Waring has a daughter, Kennady, who was born in 2012 and was subsequently adopted by Peterson when she was three years old.
Peterson and her husband adopted Kennady in 2015 due to her son and his girlfriend’s personal struggles, she told The Daily Dish at the time.
“As most of the viewers know, I have a son and he’s had just a lot of challenges. And he and his wife had a baby almost three years ago,” Peterson said.
“He’s really struggling and, well, they’re both really struggling. And so [my husband] George and I elected to help out and we actually adopted Kennady, and so we’re raising her.”
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She continued, saying, “There’s this beautiful child. I was there for her birth and I connected and bonded and I never knew it would go in this direction.”
What is he accused of?
Waring was arrested in January 2022 after a police officer recognized him in the passenger seat of the vehicle.
The officer was under jurisdiction to conduct a search of the car because Waring was in the system and reportedly on parole.
TMZ reported the police officer allegedly found fentanyl and methamphetamine on Waring’s lap before he allegedly tried to brush it onto the car’s floor.
He was taken to jail and is accused of felony possession, the sale of fentanyl, and a misdemeanor of methamphetamine possession.
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What other charges has Josh Waring faced?
Waring’s arrest in January was the most recent in a string of incidents in which he faced jail time and parole.
He was arrested and faced 65 years in prison in 2016 for shooting a man, outside a sober living home in Costa Mesa, California.
The man was 35-year-old Daniel Lopez who was shot in the lower torso but survived his injuries.
Waring, who was 27 years old at the time, was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder, vehicle theft, felony evading, hit and run, and assault and battery.
He was identified by witnesses and his bail was set at $1 million.
Waring told the Daily Pilot in 2017, “I’m not nervous because I’m innocent. I didn’t do it.”
Following his 2016 arrest, Waring spent four years in jail while awaiting trial but reached a plea deal in March 2020.
He pleaded guilty to felony counts of assault with a firearm, evading a peace officer, two counts of assault, hit-and-run with property damage, and battery.
The plea deal resulted in a sentence of seven years and four months in jail and included the four years he spent awaiting trial.
Peterson broke her silence two years after Waring’s 2016 arrest and wrote on Twitter, “After keeping silent for nearly 2 years in regards to my son’s arrest, I am going to begin laying out the facts of his case and how easily it is to be falsely accused!”
Waring was released on parole in March 2020, and his attorney Joel Garson told People, “He was looking at a potential sentence of 65 years to life, and getting out today will mark the beginning of a new life for him.”
Since he was released, Waring was charged with three misdemeanors – possession of a controlled substance, drug paraphernalia, and misrepresenting himself to police in June 2020.
He was arrested again in May 2021 when he was caught riding a rental car that had been reported stolen from John Wayne Airport.
