Posted on 05/04/2007 4:30:28 PM PDT by Rb ver. 2.0
LOS ANGELES (AP) - A judge sentenced Paris Hilton to 45 days in Los Angeles County jail on Friday for violating her probation in a reckless driving case.
The heiress arrived at court 10 minutes late in the back of a black Cadillac Escalade and swept into the Metropolitan Courthouse with several men in suits, ignoring screams of photographers lining the route into a rear entrance. Her parents, Rick and Kathy Hilton, also came with her.
Wearing a gray jacket and white shirt over black slacks and with a black headband on, she said nothing and appeared serious.
The celebrity case brought an unusual scene to the austere courthouse south of downtown in a commercial area. As if at a red carpet event, dozens of photographers and reporters lined up at the rear entrance. Yellow police tape substituted for velvet ropes.
TV trucks were parked nearby to beam the news worldwide and a helicopter hovered overhead. Extra sheriff's deputies stood guard.
Hilton, 26, pleaded no contest in January to reckless driving stemming from a Sept. 7 arrest in Hollywood. Police said she appeared intoxicated and failed a field sobriety test. She had a blood-alcohol level of .08 percent, the level at which an adult driver is in violation of the law.
She was sentenced to 36 months probation, alcohol education and $1,500 in fines.
Two other traffic stops and failure to enroll in a mandated alcohol education program, are what landed the socialite back in court.
On Jan. 15, Hilton was pulled over by California Highway Patrol. Officers informed her that she was driving on a suspended license and she signed a document acknowledging that she was not to drive, according to papers filed in Superior Court.
Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies stopped Hilton on Feb. 27 and charged her with violating her probation. Police said she was pulled over at about 11 p.m. after authorities saw the car speeding with its headlights off.
Hilton's spokesman, Elliot Mintz, said at the time Hilton wasn't aware her license was suspended. A copy of the document Hilton signed on Jan. 15 was found in the car's glove compartment, court papers say.
Should be. All the rest were. Equal treatment.
” Non (deliberately)threatening people do not belong in prison or jail.”
I don’t know about you, but to me, speeding at night with your headlights off qualifies as threatening behavior.
She looked better before all the plastic stuff was added. Not that she looked great, but at least she was natural.
Well, the idea that we have too many people in prison is your opinion of course. This is part of an ongoing debate of what prison is all about. Fortunately for people that think like I do, prison isn’t about reform. It isn’t about just keeping violent people away from others. It is about punishment. Do the crime, do the time; and all that. I don’t think it is at all wasteful.
Paris is a poster child for someone that needs to go to jail. Clearly she is a scofflaw. She has zero respect for the law. He mother laughing at the idea that her daughter belongs in jail. Wow. I am reminded of Leona Helmsley stating that “only little people pay taxes”. A fine isn’t good enough for her. She ignored demands for rehab. Rehabilitation was tried for this woman and it didn’t work. At some point one must be forced. In my opinion punishment is completely proper.
For Paris I can almost guarantee that taking away her freedom for 45 days will change her life. I would guess that she will never break the law again. She isn’t some person committing crimes because of drug addiction. She appears to be someone who just doesn’t have any desire to follow the law.
She sure didn’t look like the Paris Hilton of yore when she was walking back to the car after the sentencing. I’m sick of all so-called celebs thumbing their noses at at both society and the law. I hope this makes her grow up -— and her mother, too.
Spoiled brat!
As soon as every citizen is either compliant or on probation.
The problem is that the definition of a "crime" seems to be expanding.
Today, smoking a cigarette in the wrong place is a crime. Tomorrow, eating a cheeseburger may be.
Bring back caning with a rattan cane for crimes like this. Guaranteed she won’t do it again.
Nothing teaches idiots and worse than idiots like pain.
In this case I would have to say that alcohol-related reckless driving (which she pleaded no contest to), getting pulled over twice since then for driving on a suspended license, speeding at night with the lights off and finally failing to enroll in a court ordered rehabilitation program is an open and shut case and far and away different from some grey-area smoking/trans fat serving/or otherwise wishy-washy and borderline crime.
> Paris is a poster child for someone that needs to go to jail.
AMEN! And I want to see her perp-walk! Doesn’t *anyone* have footage of her perp-walk??
I’m going to hazard a guess that suitable footage doesn’t exist. Just like there’s no footage I can find of Martha doing the perp-walk. Reason? 1) both are female, and 2) neither are from an easily identifiable minority and 3) they are both rich enough to sue the pants of anyone bold enough to cuff them, and even moreso for anyone daring to take the photos, and finally 4) they have managed to persuade everyone that they actually ARE too good for GAOL.
Can anyone prove me wrong? I’d say no.
Delighted to be proven wrong, tho’ — it would mean there’s a Modicum of Justice in this world.
Give me a break. Leona Helmsley paid more federal and State taxes then 99% of all American's ever will.....And employed more Americans then 90% of most American's ever will....
So be it. The point is the "time" for the crime is foolishness. There are plenty of other more productive, less wasteful, less need for Gov't growth and bloated budgets ways......To replace the "time" punishment with.
You could still have your silly slogan "do the crime, do the time" all you want. A smart society would simply be replacing the "time" spent in prison....with "time" doing something else much more productive (and not as wasteful and needlessly budget bloating).
Not sure of the precedence for a perp walk. Sometimes the convicted are immediately taken into custody and there is no perp walk. I don’t know why Paris was given so much time. It feels like the rich and famous are always given time after sentencing. But then again, when is a non-rich and famous (or notorious) convicted criminal ever a news item anyway? We never see these people. Maybe they get a lag time before jail too. If there are any attorneys here perhaps they could help.
I don’t know if I care about a perp walk. In some cynical get-even sense it would feel good I suppose, if only because she seems like such a pompous ass. Schadenfreude is the in-vogue phrase that might describe this. Nothing honorable in that but maybe it is just my human nature:) Mainly I just want the criminal to do their time and get on with (a crime free) life.
So she had one of her lawyer flunkies try to testify that he told her she could drive and it wasn’t her fault! Oh boy. I am glad we live in America where we do not have royalty. Even if they think they are.
I wouldn’t characterize it as a silly slogan. It is a fair statement. I also wouldn’t characterize prison as wasteful. If the budget is bloated then fix the budget. For an analogy, there is waste in the defense budget but I don’t want to stop funding defense, I want to fix the waste. Same goes for the prison system. If there is waste, then fix the waste (and I don’t consider criminals doing time “waste” either).
Again, I don’t think doing time for a crime is foolish at all. Perhaps there are more effective ways of dealing with non-violent criminals (you haven’t given any). Whatever it is it will involve government (and by default, waste) as only government can dish out punishment (or rehab, etc). In any case, I don’t know what other punishment (if you would even give punishment to non-violent criminals) you are suggesting so it is difficult to agree or disagree with you.
Your comment “A smart society…” implies that prison is not smart and your ideas are smart is conjecture, of course. It is also a bit arrogant considering you haven’t made any suggestions. My apologies if you are a regular and have given your position in other posts.
is that really her on the left?
> You could still have your silly slogan “do the crime, do the time” all you want. A smart society would simply be replacing the “time” spent in prison....with “time” doing something else much more productive (and not as wasteful and needlessly budget bloating).
Twelve of the best with a rutan would certainly do the trick, and it would be cheap and over and done with quickly. Definitely it would re-install a respect for Law and Order within, say, the 6 minutes it might take to administer. Definitely pragmatic, and definitely a punishment that fits the crime.
But it might make the swimsuit shots a tad dodgy and inconvenient for a while....
Perfect. We can learn much from Singapore.
Well I think we still have a thread running for Anna Nicole too......
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