Lindsay Lohan is ‘victim’ despite criminal charges, lawyer says
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Lindsay Lohan, who faced charges both in New York and Santa Monica this week, is an innocent victim, one of her attorneys said.
Lohan was charged Thursday with three misdemeanors for allegedly lying to Santa Monica police in connection with a June traffic accident on Pacific Coast Highway.
The charges came hours after the “Mean Girls” and “The Parent Trap” actress was arrested in New York on suspicion of third-degree assault, a misdemeanor, after she allegedly punched a woman in the face at Club Avenue in Manhattan’s fashionable meatpacking district.
PHOTOS: The trials and tribulations of Lindsay Lohan
Her attorney in that case denied the actress did anything wrong.
‘Once again, Lindsay Lohan is a victim of someone trying to capture their 15 minutes of fame,’ her New York attorney, Mark Heller, said in a statement obtained by the Associated Press. ‘From my initial investigation, I am completely confident that this case will be concluded favorably and that Lindsay will be totally exonerated.’
Santa Monica prosecutors weighed charges against Lohan for weeks after police said they found evidence that she lied when she said she was not behind the wheel of a Porsche that collided with a dump truck.
Santa Monica Police Sgt. Richard Lewis told The Times earlier this month that the department’s investigation had determined that Lohan was driving the Porsche, contradicting statements the actress made to law enforcement officers after the crash. She was charged Thursday with obstructing an investigation, giving false information to an officer and reckless driving.
The charges related to the Santa Monica case mean an automatic revocation of her 2011 probation in connection with a conviction for shoplifting from a Venice jewelry store. Lohan has already been sent to jail several times for violating the terms of her probation. But she eventually complied with the rules set down by L.A. County Superior Court Judge Stephanie Sautner.
More recently, the 26-year-old actress has been spending time in New York, where she has been part of several law enforcement investigations. In September, the actress claimed she was choked by a political aide in a New York hotel room. Charges against the man were dropped.
She was then the subject of an investigation when she was accused of clipping a man with her car outside another Manhattan nightclub. No charges were filed in that case.
In October, police were called to a reported domestic disturbance at Lohan’s mother’s home in Mineola, N.Y., after she had been arguing with her mother. The incident did not result in any arrests or prosecutions.
Thursday’s incident occurred inside Club Avenue. Police said Lohan was sitting inside a black SUV when officers arrived and arrested her about 4 a.m.
Lohan was not injured and the alleged victim, whose injuries were not disclosed, refused medical treatment at the scene, officials said.
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-- Andrew Blankstein