Thursday, February 24, 2011
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES
A judge told Lindsay Lohan on Wednesday he would sentence her to jail if she accepted a plea deal from prosecutors to avoid trial for allegedly stealing a $2,500 necklace from an upscale jewelry store.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Keith Schwartz tersely told the troubled starlet what she could expect if she pleaded guilty or no contest in the felony case.
“If you plead in front of me, if this case is resolved in front of me, you are going to jail,” Schwartz said. “Period.”
The “Mean Girls” star wore high-waisted white pants and a low-cut black top and sat reading papers while prosecutors offered her attorney, Shawn Holley, the terms of the plea deal in a closed- chambers meeting with Schwartz. The details were not immediately released, but Schwartz said he didn’t think Lohan would take the offer. She has pleaded not guilty.
Lohan told the judge she understood, and left the courtroom clutching her mother’s hand. She and her attorney left without speaking, but her father, Michael Lohan, told reporters outside the courthouse that the case is being over-prosecuted. “I don’t see Lindsay as a criminal,” he said. “This is all a result of her addiction.”
The necklace case has become the latest trouble for Lohan, who was sent to jail twice and rehab twice last year for violating her probation in a 2007 drunken- driving case.
Lohan has about two weeks to decide what to do — she is due back in court March 10. Schwartz said if she does not accept a plea deal, the case will go to a preliminary hearing during which prosecutors will lay out their evidence.