Calls Grow to Release Paris Lawyers and Fans Speak Out Over the Treatment of Celebrity Who Has Been

Jun 11, 09:45 AM

Current Headlines: By Richard Elias

PARIS Hilton is attracting support from an increasing number of lawyers, fans and ordinary members of the public who believe her imprisonment is wrong.

The move to send the socialite back to prison to serve the remainder of her 45-day sentence for violating probation in an alcohol-related reckless driving case has led many observers to believe she is paying the price for her fame and lifestyle. The 26- year-old had been released on Thursday, after just three days inside Los Angeles' Twin Towers detention centre, but was sent back 24 hours later.

Laurie Levenson is a law professor at the Loyola Law School in the Californian city and is under no illusions as to what is happening.

She said: "Hilton is a pawn in a turf fight right now. It has backfired against her because she is a celebrity. For being a celebrity she received a harsher prison sentence and then when her lawyer found her a way out of jail, there was too much public attention for it to sit well with the court."

This view was supported by one show business lawyer who said if she had not been so famous, she would already have been out.

Mark Geragos added: "What she did was about double or triple what anybody else would have done in terms of sentence.

I would rather keep people in there who are a threat than those who are clearly not."

The lawyer, who represented Michael Jackson and actress Winona Ryder, added: "It is a little ridiculous, I think, to have a bed used for a Paris Hilton as opposed to someone else who might be in more suitable care when they are in county jail."

Ever since news of Hilton's sentence was first announced, fans from around the world have been logging on to an online petition to have it overturned. Thousands of supporters have bought pink wristbands bearing the logo "Free Paris".

Many others have camped outside the LA courthouse during Hilton's hearings, holding placards and chanting to protest at the treatment of the star.

Hilton was initially convicted of a parole violation after twice being caught driving in Los Angeles while disqualified. For this second offence, a judge sentenced her to 45 days behind bars, a term later halved by the courts. Last Tuesday, she handed herself in to the local sheriff's officers at the Twin Towers centre to begin that 23-day sentence.

However, after just 72 hours she was out, released on the orders of the local sheriff and allowed to return home after being electronically tagged.

News of Hilton's unexpected freedom shocked many, including the original trial judge, Michael Sauer.

He had ordered Hilton to return to the courtroom on Friday but then was initially told that she would not be coming and instead would make representation over the phone.

This only to sought to infuriate the judge further and it led him to order sheriff's deputies to pick up Hilton from her family's mansion and bring her downtown in handcuffs.

Ordering her to serve the original 45-day term, he told the court: "I at no time condoned the actions of the sheriff and I at no time approved this defendant being released to her home."

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