Lindsay Lohan posts $100,000 bail, is freed, after probation revoked

[Walter Cronkite]

A Los Angeles County judge revoked probation for Lindsay Lohan on Wednesday after reprimanding the actress and her attorney in court for Lohan's failure to comply with her community service.

Lohan was removed from the courtroom in handcuffs. She later posted a $100,000 bail and was freed early Wednesday afternoon within two hours of her arrest, a Los Angeles County Sheriff's spokeswoman said.

Under Judge Stephanie Sautner's ruling, once Lohan made bail, the actress must perform 16 hours of community service a week -- over a minimum of two days a week -- at the Los Angeles County morgue before her probation violation hearing November 2.

The judge expressed anger at Lohan's repeated probation violations the past several months. Lohan was supposed to be performing community service at a downtown Los Angeles women's center, but the judge said Lohan posted nine excused absences at the center since her last court hearing on July 21 -- and performed, at most, only two hours of service.

Lohan's attempt to perform community service at a nearby Red Cross facility was voided Wednesday because the judge said she didn't authorize that change.

"I am revoking her probation," the judge said. Sautner said "Ms. Lohan's decision made it deliberately impossible to perform" her community service.

After the hearing, Lohan publicist Steven 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," Michael Lohan said. 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.

Lohan was in court Wednesday so the judge could determine whether she made progress on the requirements of her probation from a shoplifting conviction earlier this year. In back-and-forth arguments with defense attorney Shawn Holley before making the ruling, the judge read aloud in court a statement that Lohan had made regarding her unsuccessful community service at a downtown Los Angeles women's center: "She said she wasn't interacting with anyone, so it wasn't fulfilling."

The judge harshly reprimanded Lohan.

"Is that what it's supposed to be about -- fulfilling? Or is it supposed to be punitive?" the judge told Lohan's attorney, who was standing beside the actress seated at the defense table.

"Her probation would have been done last year if she had done what she was supposed to do," the judge said. "There has been violation after violation. You have been doing this a long time. I have been doing this a long time. ... Probation is a gift. It's not a right."

"We all can't be fulfilled by what we do," the judge added.

Her attorney responded: "She understands that."

"There is this rallying cry for more punishment and more jail," her attorney said.

The judge said, "I don't care about rallying cries."

"You haven't shown me between July 21 ... and September 9, how many hours she has done at the downtown women's center. I'm thinking maybe two -- with nine absences," the judge said. "It says she blew them off and left after an hour or an hour and half."

At one point during the hearing, Los Angeles city attorneys Lisa Houle and Melanie Chavira asked the court to revoke Lohan's probation and impose jail time because of Lohan's failure to do the community service. One of the city attorneys charged in court that 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 Lohan 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 Lohan could travel to New York, Milan, and Paris for work.

But Lohan's psychologist's report stated that Lohan had perfect attendance 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?" the judge 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.

Holley told the judge that she didn't know the specifics of Lohan's psychological appointments, but the attorney said the arrangement did call for telephonic conferences.

Holley added that Lohan's work in Europe was done to support her and her family -- and impacted 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, as participants work eight-hour shifts at a time, the judge noted.

"They don't mess around and you show up and do what they tell you to do," Sautner said.

In July, a court hearing revealed Lohan was in compliance with her community service, fines and shoplifting counseling requirements, but she had not signed up for the court-ordered psychological counseling.

Her lawyer argued at the time that a lapse in Lohan's health insurance -- because she's not been working in the past year -- had prevented her from paying for the psychological counseling.

Sautner warned Lohan that she could face jail time if she did not sign up for the counseling in three weeks.

Group counseling, which probationers attend, is often free or low-cost, but the judge agreed with her lawyer that her celebrity status made that unworkable.

Lohan, 25, pleaded guilty in May to stealing a necklace from a Venice, California, jewelry store.

Her legal woes, which began four years ago with two drunk driving arrests, have been compounded by her failure to attend counseling classes, and alcohol and drug test failures.

Her probation is scheduled to end within a year unless Lohan breaks any laws before then. It has been extended several times because of probation violations, including the failed alcohol and drug tests.

In June, Lohan failed an alcohol test administered by a probation officer and was ordered to go before the judge for a probation violation hearing.

But her attorney convinced the judge the testing requirement had lapsed in February. Earlier this year, the judge ruled that she is now allowed to drink alcohol and is no longer required to take random drug tests.

Source: CNN