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Beleaguered Hollywood star Lindsay Lohan was sentenced four months behind bars for violating her probation but escaped longer jail time for a more serious charge of theft after a judge downgraded it to misdemeanor.
Lohan was briefly jailed on Friday after Los Angeles judge Stephanie Sautner handed down the sentence to the actress, who also stands accused of a separate charge of stealing a $2,500 gold necklace in January.
Judge Sautner ruled that Lohan violated her probation for a 2007 drunk driving and cocaine possession case, and ordered here 120 days jail time and 480 hours community service in a morgue and women’s prison.
Her lawyers immediately filed an appeal even as her camp scrambled to post $75,000 bail for her temporary freedom and eventually secure her release from custody pending an appeal hearing.
Lohan’s trial for the reduced charged of misdemeanor has been set on June 3 and will earn the “Mean Girls’ actress one year maximum time in jail once convicted.
The actress was released late on Friday after spending about five hours in jail, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department website.
The 24 year-old actress had since vehemently denied deliberately taking the necklace out of a Los Angeles store without paying, citing that, “she was distracted and absent-minded when she left with the item around her neck.”
The necklace was later returned to the police by Lohan’s assistant after news broke out that a search warrant was ordered to be served on the actress’ house.
“There is a lot of hoopla surrounding Ms. Lohan, but at the end of the day, relatively speaking, this is not particularly serious as grand thefts go,” according to Lohan’s lawyer Shawn Holley.
However, judge Sautner brushed aside the defense argument, stressing that, “I see the intent here and I see the level of brazenness with ‘let me see what I can get away with’.”
The actress has been in and out of rehab, jail and courtrooms for a number of infractions since 2007 which had her career taking a rollercoaster ride.
But recently, Lohan has secured a role in an upcoming movie about New York mobster John Gotti, although it wasn’t clear now how she could have time for the set with the recent jail sentence.
