Lindsay Lohan reached a plea deal Thursday (August 23) on misdemeanor DUI and drug charges that will find her spending one day in jail, serving 10 days of community service and completing a drug-treatment program, according to The Associated Press. She will not stand trial.

Through her lawyer, Lohan pleaded no contest to two counts of driving under the influence, two counts of being under the influence of a controlled substance (cocaine), and reckless driving. All the charges are misdemeanors — a lucky break for the actress, as felony charges could have landed her in jail for more than a year.

Lohan was placed on 36 months probation and will be required to complete an 18-month alcohol-education program and pay hundreds of dollars in fines. She must also finish a three-day county coroner program that will require her to visit a morgue and talk to victims of drunken drivers.

"It is clear to me that my life has become completely unmanageable because I am addicted to alcohol and drugs," Lohan wrote in a statement released to MTV News. "Recently, I relapsed and did things for which I am ashamed. I broke the law, and today I took responsibility by pleading guilty to charges in my case.

"No matter what I said when I was under the influence on the day I was arrested, I am not blaming anyone else for my conduct other than myself," the statement continues. "I thank God I did not injure others. I easily could have. I very much want to be healthy and gain control of my life and career and have asked for medical help in doing so. I am taking these steps to improve my life. Luckily, I am not alone in my daily struggle and I know that people like me have succeeded. Maybe with time it will become easier. I hope so."

Lohan's cocaine charges stem from a small packet of cocaine police discovered in her jeans when she was arrested on July 24 in Santa Monica, California. According to prosecutors, the amount of cocaine found tested below the .05 grams required to qualify for a felony filing. After a May 26 crash — in which Lohan is alleged to have lost control of her Mercedes and crashed into a tree on Sunset Boulevard at 5:26 a.m. — tests on a substance found in Lohan's purse came up as .04 grams of cocaine powder, according to a press release on the charges from the DA's office.

During her second arrest — for allegedly chasing another car driven by the mother of a former assistant — officers found a container on Lohan that tested positive for .02 grams of cocaine, according to the DA office press release.

Lohan is currently at the Cirque Lodge treatment center in Sundance, Utah, where she has been ordered to stay indefinitely.


MTVNews

B.S.

The. ****. she. was. caught. with. COCAINE. IN. HER. POCKET. JESUS. CHRIST. DAMN. IT!

Like she'll clean up in a required drug rehab thing. Hello, she's chilling in Utah, like she's gonna sober up.

Stupid bitch needs to serve 1 year. If this was a "normal" coke fiend and not some celebrity, she'd be treated a lot differently.

shes an asshole. i hope people protest i dont feel like it.boycott boycott

Can she be in jail forever. She always repeats her bad actions.

total ********

If she does not clean up her act she get the life setence really soon

GOD BLESS HER!!!!!

I want her lawyers & defense team whenever I **** up royally in public. That red head is guilty.

But at least she's getting this:


and

Poor Lindsay. She has no more reputation for me.

This chick should at least serve half of the 3-4 years that she was supposed to get!

This is not justice!

JUST 1 DAY?WTF SHE DESERVES THE SAME AS PARIS HILTON!

1 day lol .What would happen to me if I did that. Im sure it would be considerably more. Well Nicole Richie spent 82 minutes in jail of a 4 day sentence so using that number Lindsay could spend as little as about 20 minutes lol.

According to MTVNews:


The reaction was to be expected: Two more rich celebrities get slaps on the wrist, yet again.

First, on Thursday afternoon, Lindsay Lohan reached a plea deal on misdemeanor DUI and drug charges that will find her spending one day in jail, serving 10 days of community service and completing a drug-treatment program. Then, a pregnant Nicole Richie was sentenced the same day to four days in jail for driving under the influence of drugs — she checked herself in and out of jail on Thursday afternoon after serving a mere 82 minutes.

Tabloids capitalized on the turn of events, blaring frustrated headlines like "82 Min. Behind Bars? That's Richie" (New York's Daily News) and "Hard-ly Time For Bimbos" (New York Post).

But wait a second — before everyone goes crying foul, consider California's sentencing guidelines. Experts say that, according to those rules, Lohan and Richie didn't get special treatment.

According to Jane Robison, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles district attorney's office, Richie and Lohan were sentenced to the "required minimum for someone charged with these crimes." In Lohan's case, she was sentenced to serve 96 hours — the mandatory minimum for a second-DUI offense — but the judge gave her 24 hours' credit for the time she had already served. Lohan also chose to perform 10 days of community service instead of spending 48 hours behind bars, which leaves her only having to serve 24.

"That's standard for anybody convicted of these crimes," Robison explained. "We filed seven misdemeanor counts, and she pleaded to five of those, and we dismissed two — again, that's normal. We filed two separate DUIs for each incident, and she pleaded to two, and two were dismissed as part of her plea deal."

At the time of Lohan's arrests, the cocaine found in her possession weighed under the 0.05 gram limit for felony filing — hence she was charged with misdemeanor possession in both cases. Lohan's DUI charges were also misdemeanor counts — had Lohan injured someone during the incidents, they would have been upgraded to felony status.

"This is all part of the California penal code," Robison explained. "We don't care if someone's a celebrity or Jane Doe on the street — if what [Lohan] had done constituted a felony, we would have charged her with a felony."

The Los Angeles County sheriff's office, which controls the state's prisons, gave the thumbs up to Richie's early release. Thanks to a federal court mandate, the sheriff's office manages jail overcrowding at its own discretion; typically, arrestees sentenced to 30 days or less for nonviolent offenses are usually released within 12 hours, according to Steve Whitmore, a spokesperson for the sheriff's office.

"Primarily, what happens is, if it's a nonviolent offense, and if it's a misdemeanor, and the sentence is under 30 days, because of the overcrowding in the jails, the sheriff has the discretion to release them early," Whitmore said. "Let's deal with the 90 hours [Richie received]. You do 10 percent of that, which is nine hours. And because of the fact that you have overcrowding, you usually process them in and process them out. That isn't even taking into account the good time/ work time [sentence-reduction credits earned by an inmate for good behavior and work performed], which we must follow from the state, because that's also taken off of the sentence. That's how that works. In anybody's case, that is the policy."

Richie never even made it into a jail cell — when she arrived at the jail, all she had to do was finish some paperwork.

"You're booked, you get a booking photo, you're arrested, and then you're released," he explained. "It has nothing to do with the individual — that's the process."

Whitmore added that Lohan's sentence will probably follow suit; while she's been punished to one day in jail, chances are she won't be inconvenienced for more than a few hours.

Steve Meister, a former Los Angeles County deputy district attorney with more than 15 years of experience trying state and federal felony cases, agreed that Lohan probably won't serve 24 hours behind bars. "She'll be cycled in and cycled out," he said. Meister added that he's had several clients who were sentenced to 10-day terms, showed up at the county jail for booking and were on their way home by noon.

"If you're a citizen, it doesn't sound right," Meister admitted. "But if it happens to you, you're going to want it to happen this way. Even though [Lohan and Richie] are celebrities, they're not getting any more or any less time than they should. Lohan, for all the stuff she did, it sure seems like she'd be doing a little more jail time. But they got her community service, and it's clear that she's a serious addict. There were no injuries as a result of her crime, it's a misdemeanor — her sentence is within the limits of reason in L.A. County. Some people might get a little more time, but no one would get less. I don't think she got this sentence or was charged with misdemeanors because of who she is. The charges fit the facts, and the punishment fits the crime."

Meister commended Lohan's lawyers for working out a plea deal and avoiding trial.

"I'm sure her attorney recognized the danger of pushing it to trial," he said. "It would have been some celebrity spectacle, and she would have been convicted, because the facts were clear enough to convict her. So a jury probably would have convicted her, and a judge would have been hard-pressed not to slam her. She did the right thing by taking a good deal now."

Meister also agreed that Richie's sentence was typical and that anyone who committed similar offenses would have received the same punishment. "The jails are extremely overcrowded — have been for years — and nonviolent female misdemeanor inmates typically get booked in, booked out," he said. "She got the same amount of time that anybody else would in that situation."

B.S. If Lohan Was A Regular Person She Would Get A Year In Jail And Everybody Knows It.

Disgusting.

And they say justice is equal for everyone.. give me a break.

^ agreed

lol considering the fact that Paris should'ave never been in jail in the first place, its outrageous how Lindsay has to spend just a day. If Paris spent 23 days for a barely there DUI then Lindsay should be locked up for like 2 months.

this is f*&%#!@ rediculous.