WHAT A BOMBSHELL - Jailbird Paris Hilton has been set free because of a medical problem?!?!
What is this mysterious medical condition? The race is on to find out and when it's over, Hilton may have been better off doing the time and keeping this under wraps!
As a former Los Angeles Superior Court Judge, I can tell you one of my biggest frustrations was sentencing people to jail only to see them released after a ridiculously brief stint in custody by law enforcement officials.
There were occasions where I would actually order someone to serve 10 days in the morning, and then I would see them back on the street as I was leaving the courthouse at 5pm.
While I was not alone in my outrage by this common practice resulting from extremely crowded jail conditions in Los Angeles County, over time it just became one of those pesky, accepted realities of how broken our criminal justice system really is.
And for criminals who understand this charade, they know that taking jail time over paying fines, performing community service, or getting treatment for whatever addiction that ails them can actually be a rather sweet deal. On a 45 day sentence with a maximum punishment of six months, folks are simply not doing that much time.
So how does all this relate to the spoiled, bratty heir to the Hilton fortune? Selective enforcement? Favoritism? Special Treatment? Racism?
Was Superior Court Judge Michael Sauer in on it?
None of the above!
The "special deal" that was cut was the same deal most low level misdemeanor offenders would receive, particularly on vehicular matters.
Forget about speculation over whether the Sheriffs department was overwhelmed with all the global, frenetic media attention Paris Hilton warrants for reasons that are still unfathomable to me.
Now that we know that the celebutante was reassigned early this morning to her palatial estate, that would actually amount to serving four days. After showing up at the MTV Movie awards Sunday all glammed up and "healthy", Hilton entered into the Lynwood facility on later on that evening. That's considered her first day. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday constituted days two thru four.
A sheriff's spokesperson stated that 'The Simple Life' star has actually served 5 days, giving her credit for her Thursday morning release. Any person serving custody time in California is entitled to this computation of jail credits.
At the press conference we learned that because Hilton had some kind of pre-existing, unspecified medical condition, the Carl's Jr. burger eater requested through her attorney and was granted by the Sheriff's department what essentially amounts to home detention.
Despite the inevitable public outcry and conspiracy theories already spreading throughout cyberspace, this is also standard family.
In fact, most people will not opt for this alternative because the defendant must pay to have the ankle bracelet secured, and the defendant ends up being confined for the remaining 40 days under the watchful supervision of the LA County Probation Department.
Yes there are people in custody with cancer, Aids, turberculosis and the like. The issue for many of them, however, is their inability to pay for quality health care, private jails or home detention.
And guess what? For those like Paris who can, don't think that city prosecutors, defense attorneys, my former colleagues and I haven't approved such requests in hundreds of thousands of cases.
The problem here, however, was that the judge did not co-sign on this decision. I personally know Judge Sauer. I worked alongside him and actually adjudicated cases on his docket on numerous occasions. I can tell you -- he is not a happy camper right now.
Now, Judge Sauer could have ordered the sheriff's department to bring Hilton back to court for further proceedings to ensure she would not be released. But then Judge Sauer would be putting himself in a position of possibly answering to charges that he was expressing inapproapriate bias or prejudice toward Paris simply because of her celebrity status.
So there it is folks. As they say, "Don't hate the player... hate the game!"
Now if you want to really talk about injustice, lets discuss our next post. Just scroll down...