[Vision2020] Paris Hilton Going Back to Jail

[Tom Hansen]

>From CNN at www.cnn.com -

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LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Screaming and crying, Paris Hilton was
escorted out of a courtroom and back to jail Friday after a judge ruled that
she must serve out her entire 45-day sentence behind bars rather than in her
Hollywood Hills home.

"It's not right!" shouted the weeping Hilton, who violated her probation in
a reckless driving case. "Mom!" she called out to her mother in the
audience.

Hilton, who was brought to court in handcuffs in a sheriff's car, came into
the courtroom disheveled and weeping, hair askew, sans makeup, wearing a
gray fuzzy sweatshirt over slacks.

She cried throughout the hearing, her body shook constantly and she dabbed
at her eyes. Several times she turned to her parents, seated behind her in
the courtroom, and mouthed, "I love you."

Superior Court Judge Michael T. Sauer was calm but apparently irked by the
morning's developments. He said he had left the courthouse Thursday night
having signed an order for Hilton to appear for the hearing. (Timeline: The
Hilton case )

When he got in his car early Friday, he said, he heard a radio report that
he had approved Hilton's participation in the hearing by telephone, but he
had not.

"I at no time condoned the actions of the sheriff and at no time told him I
approved the actions," he said of the decision to release Hilton from jail
after three days.

"At no time did I approve the defendant being released from custody to her
home on Kings Road," Sauer said.

Assistant City Attorney Dan F. Jeffries argued that Hilton should be
returned to jail, and said that was purely the judge's decision to make.
"Her release after only three days erodes confidence in the judicial
system," Jeffries said.

Hilton's attorney, Richard Hutton, implored the judge to order a hearing in
his chambers at which he would hear testimony about Hilton's medical
condition before making a decision.

The judge did not respond to that suggestion. (Watch the details of Hilton's
release)

Another of her attorneys, Steve Levine, said, "The sheriff has determined
that because of her medical situation, this (jail) is a dangerous place for
her."

"The court's role here is to let the Sheriff's Department run the jail," he
said.

A former district attorney, Robert Philibosian, also represented Hilton. He
said that the law supports the sheriff in making an independent decision on
her custodial situation.

The judge interrupted several times to say that he had received a call last
Wednesday from an undersheriff informing him that Hilton had a medical
condition and that he would submit papers to the judge to consider. He said
the papers never arrived.

Every few minutes, the judge would interrupt proceedings and state the time
on the clock and note that the papers still had not arrived.

He also noted that he had heard that a private psychiatrist visited Hilton
in jail and he wondered if that person played a role in deciding her medical
needs.

The frenzy over Hilton's jail status began early Thursday when sheriff's
officials released Hilton because of an undisclosed medical condition and
sent her home under house arrest. She had been in jail since late Sunday.
(Watch Hilton enter jail)

Hilton was fitted with an electronic monitoring ankle bracelet and was
expected to finish her 45-day sentence for a reckless driving probation
violation at her four-bedroom, three-bath home.

The decision by Sheriff Lee Baca to move Hilton chafed prosecutors and Judge
Sauer, who spelled out during sentencing that Hilton was not allowed to
serve house detention.

California Attorney General Jerry Brown criticized the Sheriff's Department
for letting Hilton out of jail, saying he believed she should serve out her
sentence.

"It does hold up the system to ridicule when the powerful and the famous get
special treatment," Brown told The Associated Press in an interview before
testifying at a congressional hearing in Washington.

"I'm sure there's a lot of people who've seen their family members go to
jail and have various ailments, physical and psychological, that didn't get
them released," he said. "I'd say it's time for a course correction."

The Los Angeles County jail system is so overcrowded that attorneys and jail
officials have said it is not unusual for nonviolent offenders like Hilton
to be released after serving as little as 10 percent of their sentences.

Hilton's path to jail began September 7, when she failed a sobriety test
after police saw her weaving down a street in her Mercedes-Benz on what she
said was a late-night run to a hamburger stand.

She pleaded no contest to reckless driving and was sentenced to 36 months'
probation, alcohol education and $1,500 in fines.

In the months that followed she was stopped twice by officers who discovered
her driving on a suspended license. The second stop landed her in Sauer's
courtroom, where he sentenced her to jail.

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"Uh, how about a 1-strike law. Death doesn't seem too extreme for a Level-3
sex offender."

- Dale "Comb-Over" Courtney (August 3, 2005)