No springtime for Paris

Paris Hilton is seen the window of a police car as she is transported from her home to court by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department in Los Angeles on Friday, June 8, 2007. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)

I really don't know what to say about this story, except that it is pure madness. Here is the latest on Paris Hilton going to jail from MSNBC:

LOS ANGELES - Paris Hilton was sent screaming and crying back to jail Friday after a judge ruled that she must serve out her sentence behind bars rather than in the comfort of her Hollywood Hills home.

“It’s not right!” shouted Hilton, who violated her probation in a reckless driving case. “Mom!” she cried out to her mother.

The 26-year-old hotel heiress was taken handcuffed from her home in a black-and-white police car, paparazzi sprinting in pursuit and helicopters broadcasting live from above. She entered the courtroom disheveled and weeping, hair askew, without makeup, wearing a fuzzy gray sweat shirt over slacks.

She cried throughout the hearing, dabbing her eyes, and her body shook constantly. Several times she turned to her parents, seated behind her in the courtroom, and mouthed, “I love you.” TMZ.com reported that Hilton's family will file an appeal, maybe as soon as Friday afternoon.

Hilton was taken to a treatment center at the downtown Twin Towers jail for medical and psychiatric examination to determine which facility she will be held in, said sheriff’s spokesman Steve Whitmore.

“She’ll be there for at least a couple of days,” he said.

And here is some video of Paris leaving her house, courtesy of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department--and the paparazzi chasing after her on foot. From YouTube:



What amazes me here is that this whole insane mess started with an argument between the Sheriff's Department and the court. According to The New York Times:

Judge Michael T. Sauer ordered Ms. Hilton to serve out the remainder of her sentence in a county lock-up after the city attorney, whose office had prosecuted the heiress, filed a petition asking that the sheriff’s department be held in contempt or explain why it had released her with an ankle monitor on Thursday, after she had served just five days.

Ms. Hilton had been sentenced to 45 days in jail for violating the terms of her probation in an alcohol-related reckless driving case. With time off for good behavior, she had been expected to serve 23.

[....]

It was a rare moment in this star-filled city, where badly behaving celebrities can seemingly get away with anything — or at least D.U.I. But Ms. Hilton, for all her money and celebrity, seems to have been caught between battling arms of the legal justice system here, with prosecutors and Judge Sauer determined to make a point by incarcerating her, only to have the sheriff’s office let her go.

“She’s a pawn in a turf fight right now,” said Laurie Levenson, a law professor at Loyola Law School Los Angeles. “It backfired against her because she’s a celebrity. She got a harsher sentence because she was a celebrity. And then when her lawyer found a way out of jail, there was too much public attention for it to sit well with the court.”

The struggle between the judge and the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department, which runs the jail, incited indignation far beyond the attention normally paid to a minor criminal matter.

[....]

California has been struggling to comply with a federal order to ease overcrowding in its jails and prisons, and Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca has for the past year implemented a program of early release. But that has frustrated prosecutors who believe that early release undermines their efforts to punish those found to have broken the law.

In one sense, I do feel a little sorry for Paris Hilton. She got caught in the middle of a turf battle between the court, and the Sheriff's Department as to whether she was going to spend time in jail, or under house arrest. Judge Sauer wanted to punish her, perhaps for having no respect for the law. She is a celebrity, and celebrities may believe that they get preferential treatment from the law, and everyone else. She was caught driving under the influence of alcohol. She came to her probation hearing ten minutes late. So in one sense, I can understand how Judge Sauer wanted to make Paris Hilton and example here for other celebrities, who may be considering driving drunk.

But then there is the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department. Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca decided that he didn't want to have Paris Hilton crowd his jail, so he released her to a "house arrest." Now if you're a celebrity who is preparing to spend some jail time for a DUI, and the Sheriff's Department tells you that you can spend your jail time at home, instead of in the jail, are you going to argue with the sheriff on this? If the sheriff said I could go home, then I'll go home. This is where the insanity comes in because we now have one branch of the legal system (the court) fighting with the second branch (the sheriff) over whether Paris Hilton will serve her time in jail, or at home. It is incredible. And Paris Hilton has become a pawn in this legal fight between the two branches.

I don't know how it is going to end, but I would imagine that Paris Hilton would probably spend half of her 45-day sentence in jail. The longer that Paris Hilton stays in jail, the longer this legal fight drags itself out between the two departments, and the longer this story stays in the media. So there will certainly be more to come here.

Update: Keith Olbermann has a great roundup of the Paris Hilton saga. I have also found some more video of Paris taken to jail, and the media frenzy here and here. Even more insane, MSNBC brought in comedian Tommy Chong to provide expert analysis of this saga, as the sheriff's squad car is taking Paris to jail.