Oct 21, 2011

Lindsay Lohan gets a second chance to appear

Lindsay Lohan
After missing her first day of community service at the Los Angeles County morgue, actress Lindsay Lohan gets a second chance to appear on time Friday.

"Lindsay arrived at the morgue approximately 20 minutes late and will be returning for orientation tomorrow," said her publicist Steven Honig Thursday.

Just a day earlier, a judge rebuked Lohan for similar failures, revoked her probation and forced her to post $100,000 bail.

"Her lateness was due to a combination of not knowing what entrance to go through and confusion caused by the media waiting for her arrival," Honig said in a statement. "Lindsay spoke with the supervisors at the morgue. They showed her how to get in, and everything is all cleared up."

Chief Coroner Craig Harvey said Lohan failed to show up on time -- 10 a.m. ET Thursday -- to the coroner's office.

Though she arrived late, Lohan was turned away because there wasn't enough time to complete her hours for the day, officials said.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Stephanie Sautner ruled Wednesday that after Lohan posted $100,000 bail for her probation revocation, she had to perform two working shifts -- or eight hours a day -- twice a week until her probation revocation hearing Nov. 2.

Lohan's tardiness Thursday doesn't mean she is turned away from the program, Harvey said. If Lohan shows up Friday on time, she will be allowed to work and perform her community service, Harvey said.

The coroner's office will dismiss Lohan from her morgue duties only if she does something "terribly" wrong or shows misconduct, Harvey said.

Sautner revoked probation for Lohan because of her failure to comply with community service at a downtown Los Angeles women's center.

Under Sautner's ruling, once Lohan made bail the same day, the actress now must perform 16 hours of community service a week -- over a minimum of two days a week -- at the county morgue before her probation violation hearing next month.

Lohan, 25, was on probation after pleading guilty in May to stealing a necklace from a Venice, Calif., jewelry store. She served five weeks of home confinement ending in June for that misdemeanor theft and violation of another probation.

Lohan's legal woes began in 2007 with two drunken driving arrests and have been compounded by her failure to attend counseling classes and her failures of alcohol and drug tests. Her current probation calls for her to perform 360 hours at the Los Angeles Downtown Women's Center and 120 hours at the county morgue within a year.

But the judge expressed anger Wednesday at Lohan's repeated probation failures. She said Lohan posted nine absences at the women's center since her last court hearing July 21 -- and performed, at most, only two hours of service.

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

After the hearing, Lohan publicist 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," he said Wednesday. 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.

At one point during this week's hearing, Los Angeles city attorneys Lisa Houle and Melanie Chavira asked the court to revoke Lohan's probation and impose jail time because of her failure to do community service. One of the city attorneys said 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 the actress 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 Sept. 9 and Oct. 5 so that she could travel to New York, Milan, Italy, and Paris for work.

But a psychologist's report said Lohan had perfect attendance for counseling 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?" Sautner 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.

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

Holley added that Lohan's work in Europe was done to support her and her family -- and affected 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, the judge noted.

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

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