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Paris Hilton sent to jail? |
May 5, 2007
 A
judge sentenced a shocked and tearful Paris Hilton to 45 days in jail on
Friday, ruling that the hotel heiress violated her probation for a
previous traffic offence by knowingly driving without a valid licence.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael Sauer rejected Hilton's defence
that she didn't realise her license was suspended.
He ordered the 26-year-old socialite to report to a county detention
facility on June 5. She will not be allowed any work release, no
furloughs, no use of an alternative jail and no electronic monitoring in
lieu of jail.
Hilton wept and her mother, Kathy, yelled at the prosecutor, "You're
pathetic," as the packed courtroom cleared.
The stunning decision capped a two-hour hearing in which prosecutors
argued that Hilton was thumbing her nose at the court and seeking to be
placed above the law, while defence lawyers said she was being singled
out for harsh treatment because of her celebrity.
Litany of trouble
On September 7 last year, Hilton was arrested after she was found
driving her Mercedes with an alcohol level equal to the legal limit.
She was sentenced to three years on probation and ordered into an
alcohol-education program for pleading no contest - the equivalent of a
guilty plea - to alcohol-related reckless driving.
On January 15, she was stopped in her $US190,000 ($230,000) blue Bentley
Continental GTC by the California Highway Patrol and told she was not
allowed to be driving.
She signed a police statement acknowledging she was not supposed to
drive.
On February 27, she was hauled over again in Hollywood when seen driving
at night with her headlights off.
Police impounded her car when they discovered she was driving on a
suspended licence.
A spokesman for Hilton said his client was unaware she was violating her
parole - but prosecutors dismissed that line of argument, citing the
brush with traffic police in January.
'Didn't know'
Taking the witness stand in her own defence, the star of the reality TV
show The Simple Life testified that she was unaware her driving
privileges had been completely suspended at the time police stopped her
and impounded her car on February 27.
Hilton said her publicist, Elliot Mintz, had told her she was permitted
to drive for work-related reasons after the first 30 days of her licence
suspension late last November, and that she relied on what he had said.
But the judge said he did not believe Hilton, pointing to a notice she
had received from a police officer, and had signed, during a previous
traffic stop in January.
He said Hilton had "completely ignored" that notice, which she had
carried in her glove box for weeks, and another licence suspension
notice sent to her office address by the Department of Motor Vehicles,
which Hilton said she never saw.
"In my opinion, there's not doubt that she knew that her licence had
been suspended," the judge said.
"She doesn't look at her mail, her personal assistant never goes through
it either ... I think she just wanted to disregard everything that was
said and continued to drive no matter what."
In a final statement before she was sentenced, Hilton, dressed in a grey
waist jacket, white blouse and black pants, her blonde hair tied back in
a pony tail, stood before the judge and denied that she had sought to
flout the law.
"I did what I was told. I would never drive just because I want to. I
follow the law and I respect the law. From now on I want to pay complete
attention to everything," she said. "I just want to say I'm sorry."
But the judge was unmoved.
"Probation is revoked - 45 days in jail," he declared.
Hilton's lawyer, Howard Weitzman, said he would appeal "to modify the
sentence".
"It is clear that she has been selectively targeted for prosecution for
who she is," he said outside the courthouse.
Hilton recently finished taping episodes for a fifth season of The
Simple Life.
What she can expect
Hilton was sentenced to 45 days at the Century Regional Detention
Centre, Los Angeles County's jailhouse for women just south of downtown
in Lynwood.
Inmates there get three low-sodium meals a day, with dinner the only hot
meal. Beef and pork are not permitted.
"It's all poultry-based," said Captain Alice Scott, who oversees the
2200-inmate facility she describes as "a very nice place".
Like other high-profile Los Angeles County inmates - O.J. Simpson,
Robert Blake, Robert Mitchum, Sirhan Sirhan and Charles Manson among
them - Hilton will be segregated from the general population for her own
safety, living in a one- or two-person cell.
Inmates are allowed outside their cells for an hour each day to shower,
watch television in the day room, participate in outdoor recreation or
talk on the telephone, Scott said. There is a bank of phones that use
prepaid phone cards - mobile phones and BlackBerries are not allowed.
There have been other celebrities at the women's jail. Actress Daryl
Hannah, arrested last year for failing to leave a 5.7-hectare inner-city
garden where farmers were being evicted, spent a few hours there.
A year ago, former Lost actress Michelle Rodriguez showed up to serve a
60-day jail sentence for violating probation terms after her
drink-driving arrest in Hawaii. She was released in hours because of
overcrowding.
Sometimes stars are allowed to do their time in a jail of their
choosing. In such cases celebrities pay a daily room-and-board fee to
the smaller jails, which afford them more privacy and comfort.
Sean Penn found a jail in Bridgeport, a remote town on the eastern flank
of the Sierra, to serve a 60-day sentence in 1987 for fighting with a
photographer in violation of his probation for a bar room brawl.
Cop-slapping actress Zsa Zsa Gabor served three days behind bars in 1990
at the El Segundo jail near the Los Angeles International Airport. She
paid $US85 ($103) a day.
Copyright © 2007. The Sydney Morning Herald. |
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Paris Arrested With DUI Charge. |
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September 6, 2006
Video of Paris Coming Home After the Arrest
Paris Hilton was charged Tuesday with driving under the influence.
Hilton was scheduled to be arraigned Sept. 28 in Superior Court on
charges of driving under the influence and driving with a blood-alcohol
level of 0.08%, said Nick Velasquez, a spokesman for city prosecutors.
Hilton is not required to appear at the
arraignment, Velasquez said.
The 25-year-old Hilton was arrested Sept. 7 after
being stopped in her Mercedes-Benz SLR. Police said her blood-alcohol
level was 0.08%, the minimum to warrant an arrest.
Paparazzi swarmed the Hollywood police station
after Hilton's arrest.
Hours later, Hilton told KIIS-FM's morning radio
host Ryan Seacrest that she was on an early morning hamburger run when she
was stopped. |
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