Attorney's quibble over Hilton's release

Within hours of being sent home to be kept under house arrest on Thursday with an alibi of an undisclosed medical condition, the judge who put her in jail for violating her reckless-driving probation ordered her into court to decide if she should go back behind bars. The Superior Court spokesman Allan Parachini told the The Associated Press that she must report to court at 9 a.m. today, i.e. Friday. He said as per his understanding, she will be brought in in a sheriff's vehicle from her home.

The celebrity inmate was sent home from the Los Angeles County jail's Lynwood lockup shortly after 2 a.m. in a stunning reduction to her original 45-day sentence. She had reported to jail Sunday night after attending the MTV Movie Awards in a strapless designer dress. She was ordered to finish her sentence under house arrest and would remain under electronic surveillance, meaning she could not leave her plush home in the Hollywood Hills until next month.

City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo complained that he learned of her release only through news reports, as did everyone else, and late Thursday, he filed a petition questioning whether Sheriff Lee Baca should be held in contempt of court for releasing Hilton - and demanding that she be held in custody. Superior Court Judge Michael T. Sauer's decision to haul Hilton back to the courtroom came shortly after.

"It is the city attorney's position that the decision on whether or not Ms. Hilton should be released early and placed on electronic monitoring should be made by Judge Sauer and not the Sheriff's Department," said Jeffrey Isaacs of the city attorney's office.

Sauer himself had expressed his unhappiness with Hilton's release before Delgadillo asked him to return her to court. When he sentenced Hilton to jail last month, he ruled specifically that she could not serve her sentence at home under electronic monitoring.

On the flip side to the story, Delgadillo's office has indicated that it would argue that the Sheriff's Department violated Sauer's May 4 sentencing order. Baca defended the decision to release Hilton, saying it was based on medical advice, even as he declined to specify Hilton's real condition. He remarked that those who don't like celebrities, aver that they should be punished more than the average American, which is not at all justice.

As word spread earlier Thursday that the 26-year-old poster child for bad celebrity behavior was back home, radio helicopter pilots who normally report on traffic conditions were dispatched to hover over her house and describe it to morning commuters. Paparazzi photographers on the ground quickly assembled outside its gates.

Hilton herself kept a low profile, although late in the morning a man arrived outside her house with a supply of cupcakes he said she had instructed him to distribute to the media horde. Her parents also arrived and briefly entered, then left, the home.

Shortly before noon, Hilton issued a statement through her attorney, in which she thanked the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department and the staff of the Century Regional Detention center for giving her a fair and professional treatment. She said she will abide by the court's decision to serve her remaining 40 days of her sentence, and admitted that she had learnt a lesson from from her recent ordeal, and hoped that others have also learnt from her mistakes.

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