Bruno Mars is set to take a plea deal in a drug possession case he picked up after getting caught with cocaine in Las Vegas in September, according to The Associated Press.
The "Just the Way You Are" crooner will pay a fine of $2,000 and complete drug counseling and 200 hours of community service. As long as Mars, born Peter Hernandez, does not get into any other scrapes for a year, his record will be conviction-free. Clark County District Attorney David Roger and Mars' lawyers David Chesnoff and Blair Berk said the singer is due in court in Las Vegas on February 4 so he can waive an evidentiary hearing to later plead guilty and be sentenced in state court.
"Bruno is very appreciative he is being given this opportunity as a first offender not to suffer any conviction and instead to have his charge dismissed," Berk told the AP. "He is taking all of this quite seriously."
Mars ran into trouble last fall at the Las Vegas Hard Rock Hotel when a bathroom attendant noticed Mars with a "baggy of white powder substance." The singer tested positive for cocaine at the time of his arrest, and reportedly said he "did a foolish thing and has never used drugs before."
Putting the cocaine bust behind him isn't the only good thing coming up for Mars. The singer/songwriter is up for seven Grammy nominations, and will hit the stage at the big show. After the nominations were announced in December, MTV News caught up with Mars and his writing and production crew, the Smeezingtons, — who have put their touch on hits like Cee Lo's "F--- You" and B.o.B's "Nothin' on You" — and he said he was amped for the nods.
"But the fact [is] that we worked so hard this year. In a little tiny shack studio, we'd have B.o.B in there [writing] 'Nothin' on You' with us, Cee Lo writing 'F--- You' with us. The fact that it's being acknowledged by the Grammys is incredible," he said. "It's really making us feel like we did something. We're being acknowledged by the biggest."
The Grammys will air live on February 13.