And we thought A.J. was the bad boy: Squeaky clean Backstreet Boy Nick Carter was arrested early Wednesday morning for allegedly disobeying a cop’s orders to leave a Tampa, Florida, nightclub. The blond, 21-year-old singer (and youngest Boy of the Backstreet) has been charged with a misdemeanor count of resisting or opposing a law enforcement officer without violence. Carter was cuffed and placed in a squad car, but was later released on his own recognizance, police say. He’s due in court March 4.
Police pulled up to the Pop City nightclub late Tuesday night after a fight reportedly broke out, and they returned around 3 a.m. to break up another scuffle. As officers were making arrests and breaking up the melée, Carter allegedly began arguing with an unidentified woman, according to the arrest report (a copy of which has been posted on The Smoking Gun).
Cops say they asked Carter to leave the club at least 10 times before giving him the parental-style “count of three” or he’d be arrested. Sure enough, police say Carter wanted it that way: He kept playing games with their heart and was promptly cuffed.
“The cops arrested him, put him in handcuffs, and then put him in the police car. Nick wasn’t belligerent, but he started balling,” one eyewitness, speaking on the condition of anonymity, tells The Smoking Gun.
“He said, ‘You just want to arrest a Backstreet Boy. I’ve never been arrested. I don’t know what to do!’ He was crying hard. Tears were streaming down his face. People were laughing at him. The cops were chuckling.”
No comment yet from the Backstreet Boys’ management or publicist.
Carter, whose younger brother Aaron has embarked on his own solo pop career, lives outside Tampa, and according to the Backstreet Boys Website, is the group’s official prankster. More fittingly, Carter also goes by the nicknames “Chaos,” “Mr. Hyper Man” and “Frack” (which, we now presume, is short for “fracas”).
Up until now, it seems the only Backstreet Boy making tabloid headlines was the group’s “official” bad boy, A.J. McLean-the tattooed Backstreeter who in July checked himself into rehab for alcohol abuse and depression. The group was forced to postpone its U.S. and Canadian tour twice, but the 24-year-old singer returned to the group in August, declaring his sobriety and helping his bandmates push their Black & Blue disc and their new greatest hits disc, The Hits: Chapter One.
The group is currently scoring sentimental points on Total RequestLive with its hit single “Drowning,” off the best-of compilation.
