Stone Temple Pilots frontman Scott Weiland [ tickets ] faced a Manhattan Criminal Court judge in New York on Tuesday (2/16) and pleaded guilty to a heroin possession charge stemming from a June, 1996 arrest. Weiland was arrested at a Lower East Side housing project on June 1st, hours before he was to have performed at New York City's Irving Plaza on a solo headline tour. Weiland happened to be making a drug purchase during a police sweep of the area.

Weiland had suffered repeated relapses into heroin use following a 1995 court-ordered rehab stint, and Weiland's drug problems were cited as the reason the Stone Temple Pilots temporarily disbanded in 1996. The remaining members of the group formed the now-defunct Talk Show with singer David Coutts while Weiland recorded his solo effort, 12 Bar Blues.

Weiland was sentenced to complete a drug rehabilitation program and meet with a counselor four times a week in addition to staying out of trouble for one year, according to Reuters. In sentencing Weiland, Judge Neil Ross told the 30-year-old singer he will receive a jail term of 30 days if he violates any of the conditions of his sentence.

A Sonicnet report quoted Weiland as saying that he was again working with the Stone Temple Pilots and that the band had written about 20 songs in preparation to record their next album. Weiland said the band hoped to release the album in the early summer and mount a tour, possibly with Limp Bizkit and the Foo Fighters.