Lohan’s last-minute rehab drama
Lindsay Lohan has until dawn on Friday morning to check herself into a rehabilitation facility or face arrest, officials said, after the troubled starlet fled from the Morningside Recovery centre in Los Angeles after just a few minutes.
Lohan – who has been ordered to complete a 90-day rehabilitation programme after violating her probation over a 2011 necklace theft – reportedly drove to the facility but did not enter, choosing instead to go shopping at an electronics store even as her lawyer Mark Heller was telling Los Angeles County Judge James Dabney that Lohan was safely "in the bosom" of Morningside and that "nothing bad was going to happen".
According to her father, Michael, Lohan had planned to fly back to New York – but he managed to convince her otherwise.
He told the New York Daily News: "The [District Attorney] called me to get in touch with Lindsay, who was headed to get on a flight to New York.
"I stopped her from getting on and told her she’d be arrested in New York.
"She said, ‘Daddy, how can they arrest me?’ I got her just before she left," Michael said.
Multiple sources have confirmed that should Lohan fail to check herself into an approved facility, prosecutors will have her arrested.
"Lindsay leaving the rehab center that a judge was actually allowing her to stay in was a big mistake,” a source told Radar Online.
"Making that decision has serious consequences and if she doesn’t have her attorney deal with this tonight then the City Attorney is going to go to court in the morning to get a warrant for her arrest."
According to the Associated Press, Lohan’s whereabouts were unknown late on Thursday, and her lawyer and publicist were not responding to messages.
In addition to Lohan’s last-minute departure, it emerged that Morningside Recovery is not even licensed to perform the type of treatment that Lohan was ordered to undergo.
Millicent Tidwell, acting deputy director of licensing and certification for the California Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs said Morningside is not licensed to perform residential in-patient rehab or addiction treatment and lacked the appropriate license to provide residential treatment or recovery programs.
The facility is certified to provide outpatient services and operates sober living houses, which do not require licenses, Tidwell said.
Lohan’s sentence requires her to serve her 90 days in a lockdown rehab facility, and her last-minute switch from a New York facility to Morningside – allegedly because of the former’s strict anti-smoking policy – had infuriated state officials, who were given until 10 May to investigate the facility and ensure it complied with the terms of Lohan’s sentence.
Lohan pleaded no contest in March to reckless driving and lying to police who were investigating the June 2012 accident involving the actress along the Pacific Coast Highway.
She had been found in violation of her probation in a 2011 necklace theft – and had been sentenced to 180 days behind bars. A plea deal was negotiated, which included rehab, community service and 18 months of psychological therapy.
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