Friday, June 8, 2007
A day after being released to house arrest, Paris Hilton was brought back into court today in handcuffs, and ordered to serve out her sentence in jail.
Upon the judge ordering her to serve out the remainder of her full 45-day sentence in jail, Hilton was escorted from the courtroom screaming and crying. “It’s not right!” she shouted. “Mom!” she called out to her mother in the gallery.
Hilton was ordered to reappear in court as prosecutors and the judge who sentenced her expressed outrage that Sheriff Lee Baca released her from jail. A Los Angeles County spokesman said Hilton was released “due to a medical condition.” She was to be allowed to serve out her sentence at her home on King’s Road, fitted with an ankle bracelet, under house arrest.
But Judge Michael T. Sauer specifically said that Hilton was not to be placed under house arrest, and prosecutors are considering holding Baca in contempt of court.
“The decision whether or not Ms. Hilton should be released early and placed on electronic monitoring should be made by Judge Sauer, and not the Sheriff’s Department,” said Chief of the City Attorney’s Criminal Branch in Los Angeles, California, Jeffrey Isaacs.
A motion to have Hilton return to jail was filed by prosecutors just hours after her release yesterday. The hearing was scheduled to take place at 9:00 a.m. PT.
Sheriff’s deputies brought Hilton to the courtroom in handcuffs. She wore no make up, her hair was unkempt and she wore a gray sweatshirt over slacks. She cried all during the proceedings, her body shaking, and she would turn around to face her parents in the gallery and mouth the words “I love you.”
Reports first indicated Hilton would attend the hearing, but then was reported that she would be there by telephone. In the end, a court spokesperson clarified, saying that Hilton had been ordered to appear.
Hilton’s attorney, Richard Hutton, asked for a hearing in the judge’s chambers, in which testimony would be offered about Hilton’s medical condition. Sauer did not respond to that suggestion. Her attorneys also argued that it was up to the sheriff’s department to run the jail and decide how prisoners were to be housed.
Papers documenting Hilton’s medical condition were scheduled to be delivered to the court, but never appeared, with Judge Sauer noting the time during the proceedings and saying the papers still hadn’t arrived.