Lohan arrested – AGAIN
US actress Lindsay Lohan was arrested for assault in New York on Thursday, and also charged over a car crash in California, in a double legal blow which could in theory land her back to jail.
The perennially troubled 26-year-old, who is struggling to get her life back on the rails and remains on probation for a 2011 jewelry theft, was arrested in the early hours after a fight at a New York nightclub, police said.
"She was charged with assault" and ordered to appear at a later date, a New York Police Department (NYPD) spokeswoman said, adding that the Mean Girls actress allegedly struck another woman in the face.
According to police sources, Tiffany Ava Mitchell was sitting at a table next to Lohan when a fight broke out in the nightclub. The New York Daily News reported that Mitchell moved away from the dispute "in an attempt to protect herself".
She instead came into Lohan’s space, who allegedly told the woman to "get out of my face".
Sometime later, Mitchell claimed, she was shoved from behind and knocked to the ground by a blow to the left side of the face by Lohan. Mitchell’s husband dialled 911, and Lohan was arrested. As she was being led away, the actress could be heard yelling: "Are you kidding me?"
Lohan’s New York attorney Mark Heller said the actress was "a victim of someone trying to capture their 15 minutes of fame."
"From my initial investigation, I am completely confident that this case will be concluded favorably and that Lindsay will be completely exonerated," Heller said in a statement.
In California, meanwhile, she was charged with three misdemeanors for allegedly lying to police about whether she was driving a Porsche that crashed into a truck on the Pacific Coast Highway in June.
Santa Monica police spokesman Richard Lewis said she was charged with willfully resisting, obstructing or delaying a police officer, giving false information and reckless driving.
Lohan allegedly told officers that she was not driving the car at the time of the crash, but a police statement said "information was developed that Lohan was the driver of the Porsche when the accident occurred."
The Santa Monica charges carry potential jail terms of up to a year.
The latest charges could lead to jail time for Lohan for violating probation, after she pleaded no contest to stealing a necklace from a jewelry store near her home in Venice, west of Los Angeles, in January 2011.
Lohan – once a promising young starlet after earning plaudits for her roles in The Parent Trap and Freaky Friday as a child – has been trying to rebuild her life after a series of run-ins with the law.
Despite a widely praised performance in Mean Girls in her late teens, she has become more famous for drug problems that have led to several prison stays.
She has been given jail terms a number of times in recent years, but has avoided spells of more than a day or two behind bars either because of appeals or prison overcrowding.
In March, a Los Angeles judge ended Lohan’s probation on a drink-driving charge after a long string of court appearances, and changed her sentence for the jewelry theft from formal to informal probation, ending in May 2014.
Judge Stephanie Sautner also told her to "stop the nightclubbing" and behave more maturely.
The LA City Attorney’s Office said Thursday that prosecutors were awaiting paperwork from Santa Monica and New York before deciding if they will pursue Lohan for probation violation.
"We’re just waiting for all the information," said its spokesman Frank Mateljan.
Lohan recently starred in Liz and Dick, a television biopic about film legend Elizabeth Taylor and her stormy relationship with actor Richard Burton. The film has earned mixed reviews.
The respected Hollywood Reporter’s critic called it "both an awful mess and an instant classic of unintentional hilarity," adding: "Lohan is woeful as Taylor from start to finish."
