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Lohan could face 5th stint in jail

Los Angeles - A judge revoked Lindsay Lohan's probation and she was led away in handcuffs, after the actress was ousted from a community service assignment at a women's shelter.

She was released a short time later from Airport Courthouse after $100 000 bail was posted, according to her spokesperson Steve Honig.

Superior Court Judge Stephanie Sautner hammered Lohan during a tense proceeding on Wednesday and urged her to complete a minimum of 16 hours of her community service at the county morgue before her next scheduled hearing on November 2. At that time, Sautner will decide whether Lohan should serve her fifth stint behind bars. Lohan was released early due to jail overcrowding four previous times.

"There has been violation after violation," Sautner said.

"We're dealing with someone on probation," said Lohan's attorney, Shawn Holley. "Most people on probation don't always do things perfectly."

Failing to show

A city prosecutor recommended jail time, but Sautner put that decision off until next month's hearing when Lohan's probation officer and other officials will testify about her efforts to complete her sentence.

"If jail meant something in the state of California now, maybe I'd put her in jail," Sautner said.

The development marked the latest legal problem for the 25-year-old Lohan, who was given probation for a 2007 drunken driving case and a misdemeanour theft case this year.

"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," Honig said.

Lohan had been ordered in April to serve 360 hours at the Downtown Women's Centre, an agency that helps homeless women. Nine of Lohan's appointments at the centre were "just blown off" and she "showed up once and left after an hour", Sautner said.

Lohan has since started serving hours with the American Red Cross, but Sautner said that would not count because it was not part of her sentence.

During the roughly 40-minute proceeding, the judge admonished Lohan for failing to show up for her four-hour appointments at the women's centre and for taking six months to complete a court-ordered Shoplifters Anonymous course. The judge also questioned how Lohan could have complied with her court-ordered weekly psychological counselling when she was travelling in Europe from September 9 to October 5.

Probation violation

"I don't know how she did that in person every week," said Sautner.

Lohan, aside from a role in last year's film Machete, has seen her acting career evaporate in recent years. She has been in perpetual trouble since May 2010.

Another judge determined she violated her probation in the drunken driving case and sentenced her to jail and rehab. She faltered after being released early from a rehab facility and was sent to the Betty Ford Centre, where she got in an altercation with a rehab worker who later sued.

Within weeks of her release from Betty Ford, Lohan was accused of taking a $2 500 necklace without permission from an upscale jewellery store near her home in the Venice neighbourhood of Los Angeles.

Sautner determined the January incident constituted a probation violation, and Lohan was ordered to undergo psychological counselling and perform 480 hours of community service, with 120 hours to be spent at the morgue.

Lohan later pleaded no contest to a misdemeanour charge in the theft case and served 35 days of a four-month sentenced on house arrest.


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