Tearful Hilton sent back to jail

Tearful heiress Paris Hilton was sent back to jail to serve the rest of her sentence behind bars less than 36 hours after she was allowed home.

Supreme Court Judge Michael Sauer called her back to his courtroom after Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca allowed Hilton home to finish her sentence wearing a tag.

After she was returned to jail, Mr Baca said he had allowed Hilton home due to “her severe medical problems” and confirmed that her condition was “mental”.

Mr Baca said: “This lady has some severe problems.

“I can’t trust her tenuous status. I need more cooperation from the courts and from the city attorney’s office.”

He went on: “If there’s any further deterioration, hopefully we’ll be able to address it.”

The 26-year-old was taken from court screaming yesterday after she was imprisoned for a second time by Supreme Court Judge Michael Sauer.

Hilton shouted: “It’s not right!” and “Mum” as she was escorted from the Los Angeles court by Sheriff’s deputies.

On Thursday, the celebrity inmate was sent home from the Los Angeles County Jail’s Lynwood lockup shortly after 2am for an unspecified medical condition, only three full days into her original 45-day sentence for violating probation in an alcohol-related reckless driving case.

She was told she could finish her sentence under house arrest, meaning she could not leave her four-bedroom, three-bathroom home in the Hollywood Hills until next month.

But the move was strongly opposed by the sentencing judge and the city’s chief prosecutor and she was ordered to return to court yesterday, where the judge sent her back to jail.

The hotel heiress, who was taken to court in handcuffs in a sheriff’s car, entered the courtroom crying.

Her hair was dishevelled and she wore a grey sweatshirt.

She wore no makeup and cried throughout the hearing.

Her body also shook constantly as she dabbed at her eyes.

Several times she turned to her parents who were seated behind her in the courtroom and mouthed the words: “I love you.”

Judge Sauer told the court: “I at no time condoned the actions of the sheriff and at no time told him I approved the actions.

“At no time did I approve the defendant being released from custody to her home on Kings Road.”

Assistant City Attorney Dan Jeffries said Hilton should be returned to jail and said that was purely the judge’s decision to make.

“Her release after only three days erodes confidence in the judicial system,” he said.

Hilton’s lawyer, Richard Hutton, asked the judge to order a hearing in his chambers at which he would hear evidence about Hilton’s medical condition before making a decision.

But the judge did not respond to that suggestion.

Another of Hilton’s attorneys, Steve Levine, said: “The Sheriff has determined that because of her medical situation, this (jail) is a dangerous place for her.

“The court’s role here is to let the Sheriff’s Department run the jail.”

A former district attorney, Robert Philibosian, also representing Hilton, said the law supported the Sheriff in making an independent decision on her custodial situation.

The judge interrupted several times to say he had received a call last Wednesday from an under-sheriff informing him that Hilton had a medical condition and that he would submit papers to the judge to consider. He said the papers never arrived.

Every few minutes, the judge would interrupt proceedings and state the time on the clock and note that the papers still had not arrived.

He also noted he heard a private psychiatrist visited Hilton in jail and he wondered if that person played a role in deciding her medical needs.

Hilton’s parents, Kathy and Rick, were described as “highly emotional” as they left the court building.

Los Angeles City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo said: “This decision sends the message that no individual – no matter how wealthy or powerful – is above the law. Justice was served.”

Earlier, Hilton, with her hands locked behind her back in a pair of steel handcuffs, was put in the back of a Sheriff’s car for the 30-minute journey to the courtroom in central Los Angeles.

The besieged heiress faced a wall of paparazzi as she made her way down from her West Hollywood home, as news helicopters hovered above.

Reports in the US said Hilton stayed at home yesterday morning while the lawyers and judge sat in court because the Sheriff’s Department refused to pick her up.

Unnamed law enforcement sources told showbiz website TMZ.com that the Sheriff’s position was that the judge did not have the power to order her to court.

The Sheriff’s Department believed it had sole jurisdiction to monitor and control Hilton while she was under house arrest and was the only one authorised to take her anywhere.

But when she arrived in court after a delay of more than two hours, the hotel heiress was ordered back to jail.

County Supervisor Don Knabe had said Hilton’s return home on Thursday gave the impression of “celebrity justice being handed out”.

The Los Angeles County jail system is so overcrowded that lawyers and jail officials have said it is not unusual for non-violent offenders like Hilton to be released after serving as little as 10% of their sentences.

Later, Mr Baca said there was simply no room at his jail for a “low-level offender” like Paris Hilton.

In a statement, the sheriff said: “There’s 20,000 inmates, the largest jail system in the United States... It’s very overcrowded.”