Source: David Becker / Getty
Sherri Shepherd learned alot from getting thrown in jail in the days before her Hollywood stardom. During a recent interview with Page Six, the daytime talk show host revealed that she was thrown in the slammer for “not paying” her car tickets.
“At the time I did not think being in jail was a good moment, but looking back I learned to pay all my bills,” she told the outlet. “Jail, that was a classroom… it was a life lesson, and now I pay my bills on time.”
The former View cohost served eight days in jail for failing to pay $10,000 in unpaid moving violations in the early ’90s. The incident occurred just as Shepherd was beginning to build a name for herself in the industry.
“One of the girls in jail said, ‘Leave Sherri alone because she’s gonna be somebody and we are going to be here for the rest of our lives,’ literally that’s what she used to say,” the star recalled of her time behind bars.
“Her name was Shelby and she came to both my weddings when I got out. But sometimes people see things in you that you don’t see yourself, and when she said those words, ‘Sherri is gonna be somebody,’ I never thought that for myself. So I just knew that something was going to happen.”
Black drivers are disproportionately arrested for unpaid traffic fines
Shepherd’s incident was no laughing matter and a common problem that Black folks around the country often face. In a 2016 report by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, researchers found that Black residents in San Francisco made up “half of all people arrested for not paying traffic-related fines or fees,” the SF Gate noted. Similarly, in D.C., a report found that Black residents were 19 times more likely to be arrested for driving without a valid license and other traffic violations.
In addition to jail time, Black drivers are also slammed with a bevy of consequences for failing to pay their tickets like getting their license suspended or even revoked.
Luckily, Sherri Shepherd was able to get out of the legal tussle.
Last year, the Woodlawn actress made her daytime talk show debut with Sherri after filling in for Wendy Williams during her health haitus.
The show has become a huge success, ushering in powerful guests like Method Man, Tabitha Brown and Tyra Banks.
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