Sara M Moniuszko
USA TODAY
Published 11:08 p.m. UTC Jun 13, 2018
Actor John Schneider is free after serving just hours of his three-day jail sentence for unpaid alimony, The Associated Press reports.
Schneider, 58, failed to pay his estranged wife Elvira “Elly” Castle alimony, which he said he was unable to pay due to debt. The Dukes of Hazzard star was released ahead of schedule from the Los Angeles County Jail Tuesday due to overcrowding, according to AP.
Before turning himself in Tuesday, Schneider spoke by phone to Fox News about his thoughts on his upcoming three days behind bars.
“I’m disheartened with the system but my head’s up, and I’m going to go do what I have to do and make it through the next couple of days,” he told the network.
“It’s common sense versus entitlement. I’ve worked seven days a week, 80 hours a week, at least since 1978,” he continued. “I have, as every working person has, a mountain of debt that was attached to my dream. And there’s a group now that somehow feels they’re entitled to life or even luxury without work and the judicial system apparently agrees with that.”
He also shared what he planned to do while in jail: “I’m going to write songs and I’m going to finish my book,” he said.
Schneider said he took solace from a call he got from Tyler Perry, with whom he worked on OWN’s The Haves and Have Nots.
“(Tyler and I) agree on this very important thing: They can take your stuff but they cannot have your dream,” he explained. “He is a dreamer and a liver of his dreams, and I am the same and we are of one spirit. So these next three days are going to fuel my dream, not damage it in any way.”
Schneider married Castle, who had three children from a previous marriage, in 1993. The couple had one daughter together before Castle filed for divorce in 2014.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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