Lindsay Lohan avoids jail time but is headed to locked rehab
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Although prosecutors for weeks had offered Lindsay Lohan 90 days in jail or locked rehab as a plea deal, the troubled actress did not agree to the terms until the last minute.
Yet prosecutors said Monday they were pleased with the deal struck with Lohan on misdemeanor charges related to a June 2012 car crash.
‘I am pleased with the outcome,’ said Santa Monica’s Chief Deputy City Atty. Terry White. ‘We got what we offered.’
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The ‘Mean Girls’ star must also spend 18 months in therapy and serve 30 days of community service as part of the agreement, in which she pleaded no contest to misdemeanor reckless driving and providing false information to police. A charge of willfully resisting, obstructing or delaying an officer was dismissed.
In pleading no contest to the charges, Lohan admitted she had violated her probation in a 2011 shoplifting case, and L.A. County Superior Court Judge James Dabney sentenced her to 180 days in jail. But that sentence was stayed.
The judge said that if Lohan met the terms of this deal, she wouldn’t serve additional time behind bars. But he warned that there wouldn’t be any discussion about probation if she violated the agreement, implying that she would be sent to jail.
Dabney made one final suggestion to the actress before she left the courtroom: ‘Don’t drive.’ Lohan was also ordered to pay restitution to the driver of the truck that Santa Monica prosecutors say she hit June 18 while on her way to the set of the cable TV movie ‘Liz & Dick.’
Prosecutors say Lohan told officers she wasn’t driving the Porsche. She also was ordered to serve five days in jail as required by law for reckless driving, but prosecutors said that time would be served during her locked rehab sentence.
Mark Heller, the New York attorney representing Lohan, said his client was ‘extremely gratified with the end result.’
‘I’m very confident that you won’t be seeing Lindsay Lohan in any criminal courts any time in the future,’ Heller said outside the courthouse. ‘She has fully recognized all of the issues that have to be addressed, and I’m very confident she’ll be able to move forward in her life with dignity, pride and respect.’
The eleventh-hour deal didn’t come without some drama. Lohan made a last-minute dash from New York to enter the plea, apparently catching an overnight flight on a private jet, according to her Twitter account.
‘Thanks Mr. Pink for the private jet see you all in a few hours in LA,’ she tweeted early Monday.
But the flight was delayed and landed at Los Angeles International Airport about 8:30 a.m., according to media reports. Lohan arrived at the courthouse nearly 50 minutes late.
A woman threw gold glitter on the actress as she made her way past the media swarming outside. L.A. County sheriff’s officials said they would investigate the incident.
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-- Richard Winton at the Airport Courthouse
