Local Attorneys Worry About Ripple Effect of Hilton Fiasco

Jun 09, 07:45 AM

Current Headlines: By Paul B. Johnson, High Point Enterprise, N.C.

Jun. 9--HIGH POINT -- The Paris Hilton legal fiasco this week may be funny to some observers, but it's not to longtime High Point attorney Bill Wheeler.

He worries that the circus atmosphere surrounding Hilton's sentencing and incarceration in the California judicial system may make the general public less respectful of the enforcement of justice.

"If cynicism about the judicial system gets too great, people won't obey it," Wheeler said.

Hilton, an heiress to the upscale Hilton hotel chain fortune, was escorted screaming and crying from a courtroom and sent back to jail Friday after a Los Angeles judgeruled that she must serve out a 45-day sentence behind bars rather than in her mansion in the Hollywood Hills section of Los Angeles. Hilton was sentenced for violating her parole on a reckless driving charge.

Wheeler said that "absolutely I do" worry about how the Hilton case may influence the public's view of criminal justice. The apparent disrespect of a California judge's initial ruling in sentencing Hilton particularly concerns Wheeler.

"I don't always agree with what a judge does, but when a judge has spoken, whatever he orders needs to be complied with," he said. "You just don't ignore a judge's order. If that starts occurring, the whole legal system breaks down, and chaos is the inevitable result of that."

Another longtime local attorney, Jim Morgan, said he also worries about the public spectacle of the Hilton case.

"I certainly hope that it's not a slam on the whole system," Morgan said. "Our justice system isn't a perfect system, but it's a very, very good system."

Morgan said he does worry that a high-profile, wealthy defendant, such as Hilton, can use legal resources that might not be available in a similar case to someone who isn't famous or as well-heeled.

"What would have happened to a poor person?" Morgan said. "We are finding with DNA, that people because of race or poverty have spent time in jail when they were innocent."

Wheeler agreed.

"If a court orders somebody to do something, and if it turns out someone can get out of it because they're a celebrity, that's bad," he said. "If it had been some poor person, nobody would have ever heard anything about them."

pjohnson@hpe.com -- 888-3528

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