Good grief – the man who used to provide the voice for beloved cartoon character Charlie Brown has once again found himself in legal hot water. Peter Robbins pleaded guilty in a San Diego courtroom to trying to hire someone to kill Sheriff William Gore and threatening the manager of a mobile home park. He was handed probation but served jail time for violations, including drinking alcohol and cutting off his tracking ankle bracelet.
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Robbins, who previously lived in the North County, admitted in court Tuesday that he has a previous strike on his record for a 2013 case in which he threatened and stalked a plastic surgeon who performed breast implants on Robbins’ then-girlfriend.
Robbins said much of his freaky behavior amid his legal woes can be attributed to mental illness. “To stick me … into a state prison is not benefiting the justice system, I don’t feel”.
Of the voice he provided many decades ago, he said: “It is my natural voice, but it has a special kind of inflection, a mixture of anxiety and reflection as only a 9-year-old can display”. In September, he was charged with threatening the mobile park manager and making other threats including one against a judge, a jailhouse solicitation to kill Gore and vandalising his cell.
When the judge asked if Robbins had any questions, he talked about suffering from paranoid schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
When arrested, Robbins was living in Oceanside with his dog, Snoopy.
Robbins began acting at a young age and voiced Charlie Brown in a series of television specials in the 1960s, including the iconic A Charlie Brown Christmas, It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown and A Boy Named Charlie Brown.
The prosecutor acknowledged that a calmer, more subdued Robbins appeared in court Tuesday because Robbins has been taking medication.
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Robbins could have faced up to nine years in prison had he been convicted at trial.
