Lindsay Lohan’s N.Y. arrest complicates muddy legal picture in L.A.

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The arrest of Lindsay Lohan early Thursday after a New York nightclub fight comes as Santa Monica prosecutors were expected to charge the actress with lying to police, which by itself would be a violation of probation and result in jail, sources familiar with the case said.

But the sources, who asked not to be named because the case is still pending, said the misdemeanor assault arrest out of New York further complicates an already muddied legal picture for Lohan, who has been in the legal spin cycle since 2007.

The arrest is a possible violation of probation on a conviction related to a Venice shoplifting conviction.

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In the short term, the attention surrounding the New York case was at minimum expected to affect how authorities viewed her Santa Monica case and any decision on a probation violation.

Santa Monica prosecutors are considering charges against Lohan after police said they found evidence she lied when she claimed she was not behind the wheel of a Porsche that collided with a dump truck earlier this year.

If the prosecutor moves forward as expected, a judge could determine Lohan violated her 2011 probation for shoplifting and give her jail time. Santa Monica Police Sgt. Richard Lewis told The Times earlier this month that the department’s investigation had determined Lohan was driving the Porsche in June when it collided with a truck, contradicting statements the actress made after the crash to law enforcement officers.

Lohan already has been sent to jail several times for violating the terms of her probation. But she eventually complied with the terms set down by Judge Stephanie Sautner.

In March, the judge ended her probation in the DUI case and reduced the shoplifting parole to unsupervised status. The new charge would mean Sautner could revoke Lohan’s probation.

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-- Andrew Blankstein