Thursday, October 20, 2011

CELEBRITIES IN TROUBLE: Lindsay Lohan late for first day of community service

Thursday October 20, 2011




Lindsay Lohan must work two shifts a week at the Los Angeles County morgue until a probation revocation hearing in November.
Lindsay Lohan must work two shifts a week at the Los Angeles County morgue until a probation revocation hearing in November.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
  • NEW: Coroner says Lindsay Lohan missed her 7 a.m. PT start time
  • Publicist: She arrives 20 minutes late to do community service at Los Angeles County morgue
  • Actress will return to the morgue Friday and try again, her publicist says
  • A judge has already revoked Lohan's probation because of other similar failures
Los Angeles, United States -- Actress Lindsay Lohan missed her first day of community service at the Los Angeles County morgue Thursday, one day after a judge rebuked her for similar failures, revoked her probation and forced her to post $100,000 bail.
"Lindsay arrived at the morgue approximately 20 minutes late and will be returning for orientation tomorrow," said her publicist Steven Honig.
"Her lateness was due to a combination of not knowing what entrance to go through and confusion caused by the media waiting for her arrival," Honig said in a statement. "Lindsay spoke with the supervisors at the morgue. They showed her how to get in, and everything is all cleared up."
Chief Coroner Craig Harvey said Lohan failed to show up on time -- 7 a.m. PT Thursday -- to the coroner's office.
Though she arrived late, Lohan was turned away because there wasn't enough time to complete her hours for the day, officials said.
Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Stephanie Sautner ruled Wednesday that after Lohan posted $100,000 bail for her probation revocation, she had to perform two working shifts -- or eight hours a day -- twice a week until her probation revocation hearing November 2.
Lohan's tardiness Thursday doesn't mean she is turned away from the program, Harvey said. If Lohan shows up Friday on time, she will be allowed to work and perform her community service, Harvey said.
The coroner's office will dismiss Lohan from her morgue duties only if she does something "terribly" wrong or shows misconduct, Harvey said.
Sautner revoked probation for Lohan because of her failure to comply with community service at a downtown Los Angeles women's center.
Under Sautner's ruling, once Lohan made bail the same day, the actress now must perform 16 hours of community service a week -- over a minimum of two days a week -- at the county morgue before her probation violation hearing next month.
Lohan, 25, was on probation after pleading guilty in May to stealing a necklace from a Venice, California, jewelry store. She served five weeks of home confinement ending in June for that misdemeanor theft and violation of another probation.
Lohan's legal woes began in 2007 with two drunken driving arrests and have been compounded by her failure to attend counseling classes and her failures of alcohol and drug tests. Her current probation calls for her to perform 360 hours at the Los Angeles Downtown Women's Center and 120 hours at the county morgue within a year.
But the judge expressed anger Wednesday at Lohan's repeated probation failures. She said Lohan posted nine absences at the women's center since her last court hearing July 21 -- and performed, at most, only two hours of service.
Lohan's attempt to perform community service at a nearby Red Cross facility -- instead of the women's center -- was voided Wednesday because the judge said she didn't authorize that change.
After the hearing, Lohan publicist Honig released a statement: "Lindsay is hoping this matter will be resolved on November 2 and the court will reinstate probation and allow her to continue fulfilling her community service."
Lohan's estranged father, Michael Lohan, told HLN's "Issues With Jane Velez-Mitchell" that his daughter needs "a very, very intensive" program of rehabilitation for substance abuse.
"What the judge did, she had to do," he said Wednesday. But he said jail time would not be the proper remedy.
"She's not going to be working the morgue. She's going to wind up in a morgue if someone doesn't do something to get her help," he said.
At one point during this week's hearing, Los Angeles city attorneys Lisa Houle and Melanie Chavira asked the court to revoke Lohan's probation and impose jail time because of her failure to do community service. One of the city attorneys said Lohan "is in violation for getting herself kicked out of the women's center, which she was ordered to do."
But Lohan's attorney told the court that the actress received "a glowing" probation report, which said that "Ms. Lohan has reached a turning point" in her behavior and maturity.
The judge raised several questions about the reliability of that report, however.
Sautner remarked how the probation report showed Lohan had excused absences from community service between September 9 and October 5 so that she could travel to New York, Milan, Italy, and Paris for work.
But a psychologist's report said Lohan had perfect attendance for counseling every week, the judge observed.
"The psychologist said she appeared in person for her counseling every Tuesday," the judge said. "I don't know how she did that."
"Did she go to Milan for five days and come back in time or go to Paris for five days and come back in time?" Sautner asked the defense attorney.
"If she was gone from September 9 to October 5, did she get beamed across the pond? I don't know how that happened," the judge said.
Lohan's attorney, Shawn Holley, told Sautner that she didn't know the specifics of Lohan's psychological appointments, but the attorney said the arrangement did call for phone conferences.
Holley added that Lohan's work in Europe was done to support her and her family -- and affected her ability to carry out the community service.
"Because the work is out of the county, it did cause a disruption to her schedule" to do community service, Holley said.
Lohan's community service at the county morgue won't be easy, the judge noted.
"They don't mess around and you show up and do what they tell you to do," Sautner said.


LOS ANGELES - Troubled actress Lindsay Lohan was late to her court-ordered community service at a morgue Thursday, further jeopardizing her probation only one day after seeing it revoked for missing past appointments.
But a spokesman for the “Mean Girls” star blamed her tardiness, which caused officials to refuse Lohan entry into the facility, on media coverage and her own mistakes and said “everything is all cleared up.”
The actress, 25, was on probation as part of her sentence for stealing a gold necklace from a jewelry store earlier this year. She had been ordered to perform 360 hours community service at a women’s detention center and another 120 hours at the Los Angeles County Morgue, among other punishments.
But Wednesday, a judge in the case was alarmed that Lohan missed several appointments at the women’s center, so the judge revoked probation and ordered Lohan to start working at the morgue. A hearing to decide if Lohan violated probation and, as a result could go to jail, is set for Nov. 2.
Lohan was expected to show up on time at 8 a.m. at the morgue on Thursday, but she arrived more than 40 minutes late and was refused entry, said coroner’s Chief Craig Harvey.
Lohan’s publicist, Steve Honig, said in a statement that the actress arrived 20 minutes late and will be returning to the morgue on Friday morning after Thursday’s mishap.

“Her lateness was due to a combination of not knowing what entrance to go through and confusion caused by the media waiting for her arrival. Lindsay spoke with the supervisors at the morgue, they showed her how to get in and everything is all cleared up,” wrote Honig.
The actress took to Twitter to issue an apology to the coroner’s office on Thursday morning, adding “Won’t happen again, now I know where to go!”
Thursday’s events were yet another blow for the “Mean Girls” actress after her lawyer, Shawn Holley, told Judge Stephanie Sautner on Wednesday that Lohan would honor her commitments at the morgue, beginning Thursday.
Wednesday’s hearing saw Lohan reprimanded by an angry Judge Sautner for having only completed a tiny fraction of her court-ordered community service and showing little regard for her commitments.
Lohan was ordered to complete 16 hours of work per week at the Los Angeles County Morgue over the next two weeks by Judge Sautner, prior to the actress’ hearing on November 2.






















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