Posted on 02/04/2005 7:19:11 AM PST by Modernman
LOS ANGELES - Prosecutors said Wednesday they will not file charges against Paris Hilton stemming from a scrape at a newsstand in which she allegedly pocketed a copy of her homemade sex video without paying.
The county district attorney's office dropped the case for lack of evidence after investigating the hotel heiress for suspicion of petty theft.
"The evidence presented is not of such convincing force that a reasonable and objective jury would unanimously agree that the suspect is guilty," said Irene Wakabayashi of the district attorney's office.
The investigation stemmed from a Dec. 15 run-in between Hilton and a West Hollywood newsstand dealer, who was selling copies of her infamous video, "One Night in Paris."
The sex tape surfaced in 2003 just before the start of Hilton's reality TV series "The Simple Life." She has said she was embarrassed and humiliated that the tape ever became public.
A security video obtained by the TV show "Celebrity Justice" appeared to show Hilton grabbing the video and walking off after buying several magazines. Gerry Castro, an employee at Swing News, told the show at the time that Hilton became furious after spotting the video for sale.
"She threw her 80 cents change at me and took the video and said, `I'm taking this and I'm not buying it,'" Castro told the program. He later told KABC-TV of Los Angeles that Hilton and her bodyguards attempted to rip up a poster and pull down a display advertising the video.
"One Night in Paris"
You just gotta love that title.
I could have sworn this was shoplifting. Besides, a criminal conviction won't affect her ability to get a job too badly.
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