LOS ANGELES (AP) ― A judge made Lindsay Lohan’s world a lot smaller Wednesday, ordering the long-troubled actress confined to a jail cell for 30 days and to the state of California when she is released.
The sentence by Superior Court Judge Stephanie Sautner was aimed at keeping close tabs on Lohan, who acknowledged she recently violated court orders by getting booted from a community service assignment at a women’s shelter.
Lohan has been in court numerous times since her legal problems began in 2007 with a drunken driving case.
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Actress Lindsay Lohan arrives for a probation hearing at Los Angeles Superior Court, Wednesday. (AP-Yonhap News) |
Sautner warned the actress that more time behind bars awaited if she messed up again.
In reality, however, the initial 30-day sentence will be significantly shortened by jail overcrowding, and sheriff’s officials said she may only be at the jail for a few hours. In 2007, the actress spent 84 minutes at the jail before being released, and in the past she has served about 20 percent of her sentence, which is roughly six days. The actual length of the term will be set by the Sheriff’s Department, which oversees county lockups.
The 25-year-old actress has until Nov. 9 to report for her jail term, and Sautner ruled she cannot serve house arrest, as she did previously this year.
The sentence also requires Lohan to perform community service assignments at the county morgue, undergo psychotherapy sessions, and appear monthly at court hearings between December and March.
The judge also said Lohan can no longer leave the country and needs the permission of her new “no-nonsense” probation officer to travel outside California.
In recent months, Lohan has been jet-setting, appearing in New York during Fashion Week and overseas for modeling gigs.
If Lohan fails to follow the terms imposed by the judge, she will be sent to jail for 270 days, Sautner said, explaining the approach was known as “putting the keys to the jail in the defendant’s hands.”
In court, the actress, wearing a polka-dotted dress, spoke only to acknowledge she understood the terms of her sentence.
Similar arrangements with Lohan have failed. A year ago, a judge in Beverly Hills sent her to rehab until January and told her if she stayed out of trouble, she would no longer be court-monitored and would be free to leave Los Angeles.
It was not to be. At rehab, Lohan was accused of battery on a worker, although charges were never filed. Within three weeks of her release, Lohan was accused of taking a $2,500 necklace without permission and eventually pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor theft charge.
Sautner then sentenced Lohan to four months in jail in the theft case. The term, however, was reduced to 35 days on house arrest due to jail overcrowding ― an outcome that led the judge at a recent hearing to express exasperation with the actress and California’s cash-strapped jail system.
