By Staff
Lindsay Lohan pleaded guilty Thursday to two counts of being under the influence of cocaine; no contest to two counts of driving with a blood-alcohol level above .08 percent; and one count of reckless driving.
The actress was arrested May 26 in Beverly Hills and again on July 24 in Santa Monica.
The legal system dealt harshly with Lohan.
She's looking at an entire day in jail.
Contrast that to Nicole Richie, who served all of 82 minutes of a four-day sentence for driving under the influence of drugs and never saw the inside of a jail cell.
Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca is getting used to such criticism after Paris Hilton was released early for medical reasons after serving five days of her 45-day sentence.
A judge returned Hilton to jail and Richie's "Simple Life" reality TV show co-star eventually served 23 days.
"The sheriff wants everyone to do 100-percent of their time," Undersheriff Larry Waldie told the Los Angeles Times.
"Unfortunately, the facilities we have, and the capacity we have as mandated by the federal court, doesn't allow us to do that."
Richie reported to the Century Regional Detention Facility in Lynwood at 3:15 p.m. Aug. 23.
After she was processed, sheriff's officials released her at 4:37 p.m.
Under a federal court order to reduce chronic overcrowding, early release is a joke.
Over the last five years, more than 200,000 inmates have been freed early because of overcrowding in L.A. County jails.
The same day, 143 people facing charges similar to Richie's were let go – 89 males and 54 females.
For the same charge as Richie's misdemeanor, Waldie said, "the most anyone would spend in that process would be eight to 12 hours. The most."
California must be pioneering an old-school lax approach to drunk driving, which is frowned on elsewhere.
May 26 Lohan was alleged to have lost control of her Mercedes and crashed into a tree on Sunset Boulevard at 5:26 a.m.
During her second arrest, she was allegedly chasing another car driven by the mother of a former assistant.
Lohan missed promoting "I Know Who Killed Me," in which she plays a stripper abducted by a serial killer.
Her next role in "Dare to Love Me" is as a prostitute.
Let's also not forget why Richie was inconvenienced.
She was jailed for her Dec. 11 arrest by California Highway Patrol officers because she was driving the wrong way on the 134 Freeway in Burbank after smoking marijuana and taking the painkiller Vicodin.
That kind of behavior has been known to end tragically.
Hollywood is out of control, enabling these starlets with free drinks so they'll continue to frequent clubs.
Why they don't hire drivers instead of attorneys, who knows, but their bad behavior puts others at risk.