Britney Spears [ tickets ] skirted a driving without a license charge yesterday (10/21) when the prosecutor dropped the case after a jury was unable to agree on the pop singer's guilt or innocence.

After three days of deliberations, 10 jurors wanted to acquit Spears of the misdemeanor charge that stemmed from an Aug. 6, 2007, accident in which her car struck a parked car in Studio City. Two jurors voted for conviction in the case.

The original hit-and-run charge was dropped after Spears reached a civil settlement with the other motorist. The license charge was filed after it was discovered that Spears was not licensed to drive in California.

Her defense argued that Spears carried a Louisiana license at the time of the accident and that Louisiana was her real home.

Spears did not appear in Superior Court in Van Nuys during the trial. Her father testified on her behalf.

A trial for driving without a license reportedly is an anomaly; in the overwhelming majority of cases, the defendant accepts a guilty plea to the misdemeanor or to a traffic infraction, according to the Los Angeles Times. In other cases, the charge is dropped when a defendant obtains a valid license.

The prosecutor reportedly said he knew of no other defendants to go before a jury. Spears' attorney agreed, saying other defendants receive a traffic ticket and a fine, not a misdemeanor charge.

The prosecutor, who denied the charges had anything to do with his campaign for city attorney, suggested that Spears sought special treatment. He initially offered Spears 12 months probation and a $150 fine. When her attorney objected to the probation, prosecutor Michael Amerian said she could avoid probation by paying the maximum $1,000 fine.

Spears' attorney reportedly rejected the offer, saying that his client did not want "to buy her way out of probation."

At the news conference following the mistrial, Amerian was asked if the case would make it hard for him to listen to Spears' music. He replied, "You mean harder than it was before?," according to the Times report. He reportedly apologized and said he had sympathy for what Spears' has gone through.