Lindsay Lohan given 30 days in jail for probation violation

Actress will probably be freed quickly due to overcrowding, officials say. She must perform her remaining community service at the morgue after a women's shelter says she would be a 'bad example.'

Lindsay Lohan avoided a lengthy jail sentence Wednesday when a judge ordered her to serve 30 days behind bars for violating her probation, which will probably be reduced to only about a day because of overcrowding.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Stephanie Sautner warned the troubled actress that she would receive plenty of jail time if she slips up again.

Expressing her displeasure with the "Mean Girls" star, Sautner ordered Lohan to perform her remaining 400-plus hours of community service at the county morgue because a women's shelter where Lohan might have worked said she would be a "bad example" for its clients.

Sautner gave Lohan a 270-day suspended sentence for violating her probation for jewelry theft and drunk driving but Lohan was ordered to follow a strict schedule of community service and psychotherapy sessions.

"The first time you violate, you go to jail," Sautner said. "No appeal, right?"

Lohan will begin her fifth jail term Nov. 9. But Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department spokesman Steve Whitmore said she will essentially be booked and released within a day or two because she is a nonviolent offender and the jails are overcrowded.

In May, Lohan received a sentence of 120 days in jail for the misdemeanor necklace theft but instead served 35 days of house detention.

Lohan was sentenced Wednesday after admitting that she violated the terms of her probation by being tossed out of a 360-hour program at the Downtown Women's Center for failing to show up and rarely attending court-ordered counseling.

The judge transferred all of Lohan's 424 hours of community service to the Los Angeles County coroner's office, where she already has served four days.

Lohan must complete 12 days of service at the morgue and four, 45-minute therapy sessions by Dec. 14. She was told to continue that schedule each month until February, when she will have to serve 17 days more days by March 9 and attend six more psychotherapy sessions.

"This is known as putting the keys to the jail in the defendant's hands," Sautner said, asking if Lohan understood she was waiving her right to appeal and would go straight to jail if she broke the rules.

"Yes, your honor, I do," replied a demure Lohan, 25.

Smiling, Sautner added that Lohan would be assigned a new "no-nonsense" probation officer whose permission would be needed to leave the state for work or family reasons..

Lohan's attorney, Shawn Holley, asked what would happen if she finished her sentence early.

"I will be the happiest judge around if you finish early," Sautner replied.

(Published by LA Times - November 3, 2011)