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Nicole, Lindsay avoid hard time
By Associated Press
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BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. -- Lindsay Lohan agreed to serve one day behind bars after pleading guilty to drunken driving and cocaine charges. But that's hard time compared to what fellow bad girl Nicole Richie served for driving under the influence.

Richie was released from jail after just 82 minutes Thursday, the same day Lohan copped a plea.

The 25-year-old daughter of Lionel Richie checked into a women's jail at 3:15 p.m. and was released at 4:37 p.m. "based on her sentence and federal guidelines," Sheriff's Deputy Maribel Rizo said without elaborating.

Richie never actually reached her cell, spending her entire 82 minutes in custody being booked, fingerprinted and having her mugshot taken. She was originally sentenced to 96 hours in jail, but that was reduced to 90 hours because of time served when she was arrested.

Under a federal court mandate to manage jail overcrowding, arrestees sentenced to 30 days or less for a nonviolent offense are usually released within 12 hours, the Sheriff's Department said in a statement. Richie was "treated in the same manner as other inmates with a similar sentence," the statement said.

It raises questions about how much Lohan will serve of her sentence. The troubled actress also agreed to serve 10 days of community service and complete a drug treatment program.

"She's getting what everyone else would get," Deputy District Attorney Danette Meyers said after an hourlong hearing in Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge H. Chester Horn Jr.'s courtroom.

If Lohan were to be convicted of another DUI, she would receive a mandatory 120-day jail sentence, Meyers said. If the actress violates her probation in any way, Meyers added, she could face even more time behind bars: up to a year on each of the drunken-driving and cocaine charges and 90 days on the reckless-driving charge.

Lohan has until Jan. 18 to complete her jail time, community service and residential drug-rehabilitation program. She must also show proof of enrollment in the 18-month alcohol-education program required of all second-time drunken-driving offenders by that January date.

The judge sentenced Lohan to 96 hours in jail, the mandatory minimum for a second drunken-driving offense. Lohan was given credit for 24 hours already served, and she elected to complete 10 days of community service instead of 48 hours behind bars - an option available to all two-time DUI offenders. She still must serve the balance of her sentence - 24 hours - in city or county jail, Meyers said.

Lohan is being treated at a residential drug-rehabilitation center in Utah. She will remain there for at least 30 days to satisfy her sentence on the cocaine charges, Meyers said.

Lohan was arrested on May 26 in Beverly Hills and on July 24 in Santa Monica. In each incident, the amount of cocaine tested was below the 0.05 grams required for felony charges, according to the district attorney's office.

She crashed her Mercedes-Benz into a tree on Sunset Boulevard in May and fled the scene to seek medical treatment. Police tests revealed that a white powder found in Lohan's purse was 0.04 grams of cocaine.

Richie was arrested Dec. 11, 2006, after witnesses reported seeing her black Mercedes-Benz sport utility vehicle headed the wrong way on a freeway in Burbank. The California Highway Patrol said they found her parked in the car pool lane.

She pleaded guilty in July to a misdemeanor DUI charge in a deal with prosecutors that helped her avoid a potential year in jail because it was a second driving-under-the-influence conviction.

Her first conviction was in 2003 for driving under the influence of alcohol.

Richie told authorities after being arrested in December that she had smoked marijuana and taken the prescription painkiller Vicodin, a CHP officer said at the time. No drugs were found on her or in her car.

Her "The Simple Life" co-star Paris Hilton served 23 days at the same suburban Lynwood jail as Richie after she was found guilty of driving on a suspended license while on probation for an alcohol-related reckless-driving case.

Attorney Howard L. Weitzman, who represented Hilton in her probation-violation case, called the judge in Lohan's case "objective and fair."

Weitzman, who doesn't represent Lohan, added that she "appears to be doing what we would all want someone to do in this situation, which is be accountable for her actions and take responsibility for her conduct and make a meaningful effort to change her life."
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Lindsay Lohan agreed to a plea deal Thursday on seven misdemeanors that will net her only 1 day in jail.
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Reader comments on this story - 15 total

Note: All views and opinions expressed in reader comments are solely those of the individual submitting the comment, and not those of the Pantagraph or its staff.

tired of it wrote on Aug 25, 2007 8:01 PM:

" I must say that I am tired of people trying to bring race into everything. Trying to compare Vick and Lohan is like, as the old saying goes, comparing apples to oranges. By the way, did you notice Nicole Richie (daughter of Lionel Richie) served a whomping 82 minutes of her 90 hours she had left to serve. Must have been because her father is black? No of course not. Statements like that are ludicrous. Don't blame everything on race! We have come a long way and people always blaming things on race gets old. "

The new Dana Plato wrote on Aug 25, 2007 5:37 PM:

" I wouldn't kick her out of bed, but I'm not seeing it. Mira Sorvino, Penelope Cruz and Angelina Jolie are heads above this future "Where are they now?" candidate. "

What's going on? wrote on Aug 25, 2007 5:34 PM:

" Why do DUI 2-timers (especially back-2-back) get some pretty stiff penalties in Illinois and in Cali you get basically nothing? Lawyers better or laws worse? "

COLOR MAKES ALL THE DIFFERENCE wrote on Aug 24, 2007 7:32 PM:

" THE GREEN OF MONEY, IT'S WHO YOU CAN BUY OFF. "

Question? wrote on Aug 24, 2007 6:10 PM:

" Is that the dress she wore to court. The one at the top right of this article? Maybe that's why the judge was light on her. "

To: no surprise wrote on Aug 24, 2007 1:57 PM:

" Bigot, are you kidding me?? you brought in the race card, i was saying to get down off of it!!!! this is not about race, an idiot girl drives drunk everyday in this very town, we dont lock her up for a year do we?!!! Her cocaine was les than a felony, or she would deserve more. It is people like you that bring up the race card on everything, guess what, lets just lock up whitney huston for a year to, will that make you feel better? It is not moral hypocrisy to think that that one crime is worse than another. In both situations with these types of people, i think that a multi-million dollar fine needs to be done, for all colors. so get of your black and white dairy cow!!!! "

Just me wrote on Aug 24, 2007 1:37 PM:

" AND THIS IS WHAT OUR YOUNG GIRLS LOOK UP TO "

Re: No surprise.... wrote on Aug 24, 2007 1:30 PM:

" If I was the judge neither one of them would get out for a long time. They would do well to provide me entertainment in a pit fitting others. "

Pathetic wrote on Aug 24, 2007 12:31 PM:

" The American Justice system is just a joke. 86 minutes in jail?!? Why even bother? Paris got more time than that...why weren't these girls punished, too?? Even though Paris deserved jail time, these two deserve it too - and longer. Sick....just plain sick. "

No surprise.... wrote on Aug 24, 2007 12:28 PM:

" to: what!!!Big, Black horse? HA...the bigots have shown up. What's wrong? Don't like me calling you out on moral hypocrisy? I laugh at how you downplay Lohan's MULTIPLE offenses to just drinking and driving. You forgot about the cocaine and reckless driving. Vick is going to get what he deserves.........to bad you can't say the same of Lohan.... "

what!!! wrote on Aug 24, 2007 11:58 AM:

" i cant stand the hollywood culture, but what do you expect them to serve?!!! a couple of days in jail is just fine. And to "no surprise" get a life, its a little different to kill and gamble on dogs then to drink and drive. get off your big black horse and get to the real world! "

sentences are a joke wrote on Aug 24, 2007 11:18 AM:

" If they are being treated like everyone else, what does that say about our criminal justice system....it's okay to drink and drive as long as you don't kill someone? "

Elaine Benes wrote on Aug 24, 2007 10:58 AM:

" Hey Lindsay or should I call you "Nip". "

I blame the students wrote on Aug 24, 2007 10:48 AM:

" Well I guess it is fitting that these are the role models of today's youth culture! "

No surprise.... wrote on Aug 24, 2007 10:31 AM:

" Of course Lindsey Lohan gets off easy. She is a beautiful, rich, WHITE actress. She's not like that evil, rich, BLACK QB in Atlanta..... "
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