Mindy McCready Due in Court After Son Found

Dec. 5, 2011— -- intro: Country singer Mindy McCready is due back in court today after Arkansas police found the singer and her five year-old son Zander hiding in the closet of an unoccupied summer home days after the pair were first reported missing.

Zander has been in foster care in Arkansas since Friday night when he was taken from McCready and into custody. At a hearing this morning, an Arkansas judge will confer with Florida Department of Children and Families officials about sending the boy back to the Cape Coral, Fla., home of McCready's mother Gayle Inge, who is Zander's legal guardian.

Police tracked down the singer at an unoccupied lake home in Heber Springs, Arkansas, according to the Cleburne County Sheriff.

Authorities said her boyfriend David Wilson was talking to police while the multi-platinum-selling recording artist was hiding in a closet with her son. Neither McCready nor Wilson had permission to be in the home.

There was no struggle, but they said McCready was quite emotional.

Child welfare officials said Zander is safe and in good health.

He never really was in any danger, but the FBI circulated flyers, called it a "parental abduction," and declared Zander "missing."

It's uncertain whether the singer will face criminal charges. She was not arrested but could be charged with criminal trespassing, though Sheriff Marty Moss told ABC News that was unlikely. McCready could also face third degree felony charges in Florida for violating a court order and taking her son across state lines, but again it's not clear whether Florida officials will prosecute.

Whatever happens, McCready is no stranger to trouble.

The singer has been busted for drug charges and DUI, spent time in jail for assaulting her mother, been hospitalized several times for suicide attempts and claimed to have an affair with baseball star Roger Clemens.

Her latest troubles, absconding with her five-year-old son Zander in violation of a judge's order, could see her once again behind bars -- only this time she's pregnant with twins.

McCready spokeswoman Kat Atwood told ABCNews.com that the singer is entering her six month of pregnancy.

"She and the twins' father have been enjoying time spent out of the spotlight," she said. "Although they are excited in the baby news, they would 'like' to continue to do so in private at this time (as much as they can)."

The babies' father is believed to be Wilson, McCready's music producer boyfriend, according to the New York Daily News.

McCready, 36, went public with her pregnancy last week, saying she could not travel back to Lee County, Fla., where a judge had ordered the return of her son.

The embattled singer said she was willing to risk jail to "protect" Zander.

"I'm a mom first," she told The Associated Press last Thursday from Nashville. "No matter what happens, I'm going to protect my kid. If I have to go to jail, so be it."

In an e-mail to AP, McCready wrote, "I'm doing all this to protect Zander, not stay out of trouble. I don't think I should be in trouble for protecting my son in the first place."

McCready claimed that Zander was in danger, "both physically and emotionally," while living in the Cape Coral, Fla., home of her mother.

Inge, who has denied the accusations, broke into tears when she learned her grandson had been found.

"I can't even explain it, I just can't explain it," Inge told The Associated Press Friday night. "We feel for Mindy and we feel for Zander."

As for McCready, she appears prepared for whatever happens next. Last year she told ABC Radio, "My life has always been this way, and people say, 'Do you cause that? Do you make that? Is this something that you are out there…. Is this your fault?'

"And really, honestly, I think that question's so stupid," McCready continued. "Life, I believe, is already dictated of what choices you're going to make. I think God knows what road you're going to take."

McCready has enough woes to make for a hit country song. Click through to see some of them.

ABC News' Yunji di Nies contributed to this report.

quicklist: 1category: title: McCready's First Busturl: text: McCready seemed headed for the A-list, when she scored the 1996 "Guys Do It All the Time."

A year later she was engaged to "Lois and Clark" star Dean Cain, but the pair broke up the following year.

By the following decade, McCready's legal troubles had overshadowed her career.

Her first brush with the law was in August 2004, when McCready was arrested in Tennessee for using a fake prescription to buy the painkiller Oxycontin.

After initially denying the charge, she pled guilty and was fined $4,000, sentenced to three years' probation and ordered to perform 200 hours of community service.

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quicklist: 2category: title: McCready Arrested for DUIurl: text: The following May, Nashville police pulled McCready over for speeding, and she was subsequently arrested for driving under the influence and driving with a suspended license.

The singer went to court and a jury found her not guilty on the DUI charge but guilty of driving with a suspended license.

Then, in July 2005, McCready faced felony fraud charges through her involvement with a suspected scam artist named Jonathan Roda, 32. She also faced charges of violating her 2004 probation with her DUI arrest.

By the time, McCready became involved with Billy McKnight, her life went from bad to worse.

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quicklist: 3category: title: McCready's Downward Spiralurl: text: McCready and McKnight had a contentious relationship from the start.

On May 8, 2005, McKnight was arrested and charged with attempted murder for allegedly beating up McCready in Nashville.

On July 22 of that year, McCready was found unconscious in the lobby of a Florida hotel after swallowing a nearly fatal dose of pills with wine. According to the incident report obtained by People magazine, McCready wrote a four-page suicide note that said, "I'm sorry I know how selfish this [seems] but I can't take anymore pain."

McKnight, who accompanied the singer to the hospital, told People after McCready's first suicide attempt that they were "very much in love."

But McCready's mother, Gayle Inge, worried that her daughter was in the midst of a domestic abuse situation. That September, while pregnant with McKnight's child, McCready again attempted suicide by overdosing on antidepressants.

In March 2006, she gave birth to son Zander.

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quicklist: 4category: title: McCready's Mother Troublesurl: text: McCready and her mother have had a rocky relationship over the years.

Things came to a head in July 2007, when McCready scuffled with Inge and was arrested and charged with battery and resisting arrest. The following week, as she returned to Nashville, she was arrested at the airport for violating her probation on the 2004 drug charge.

In September 2007, she was sentenced to a year in jail for the probation violation, ordered to serve two more years of probation and perform 200 additional hours of community service. She was released from jail in December.

While McCready was in jail, Inge was appointed guardian of Zander. Following McCready's release, mother and daughter became locked in a contentious custody battle for Zander.

The singer once again returned to jail in September 2008 for another probation violation. Less than two months after her Oct. 31 release, she attempted suicide a third time.

McCready and her mother seemed back on good terms by 2010 when the singer appeared on the third season of "Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew." It didn't last.

In August, McCready filed suit against her mother and the National Enquirer's parent company for what she called "false statements" made in an article quoting Inge.

Now, McCready is alleging that Inge has physically and emotionally harmed Zander -- accusations that Inge has denied.

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quicklist: 4category: title: McCready's Affair with Roger Clemensurl: text: In 2008, the New York Daily News broke the story that McCready had carried on a decadelong affair with baseball star Roger Clemens that began when was she was 15 and he was 28.

Clemens, a former Boston Red Sox pitcher known as "the Rocket," denied that the relationship was sexual in nature, instead describing McCready as a "close family friend."

McCready's mother confirmed the allegations of an affair, and told ABCNews.com that Mindy had brought Clemens home to meet her family.

"I knew he was married, and it was not something I approved of," Inge said. "He was always the perfect gentleman. He had openness about him and would talk about his kids."

McCready later denied that she was 15 when the affair began. She told "Inside Edition" that they met when she was 16 and the relationship only became sexual "several years later."

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quicklist: 5category: title: McCready Does Celebrity Rehaburl: text: McCready's struggle with substance abuse was broadcast last year on the third season of "Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew."

On the website for VH1, which aired the show, the biography for McCready stated: "Although she was arrested and jailed for trying to buy Oxycontin with a false prescription and attempted suicide with an overdose of drugs and alcohol, Mindy believes her only true addiction is to violent relationships."

After the show, McCready made an appearance on ABC's "The View" to discuss her recovery.

But later that year, McCready was rushed to the hospital after she was found unconscious at her mother's home after taking a painkiller and muscle relaxant.

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