Nicole Richie Spends Just 82 Minutes in Jail for DUI Conviction

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Nicole Richie Spends Just 82 Minutes in Jail for DUI Conviction

Friday, August 24, 2007

LOS ANGELES - Nicole Richie was released from jail Thursday after serving

82 minutes of a four-day sentence for driving under the influence of drugs.

The reality show star, who checked into a women's jail at 3:15 p.m., was

released at 4:37 p.m. "based on her sentence and federal guidelines," Los

Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy Maribel Rizo said without elaborating.

Under a federal court mandate to manage jail overcrowding, arrestees

sentenced to 30 days or less for a nonviolent offense are usually released

within 12 hours, the sheriff's department said in a statement.

Under the guidelines, Richie was "treated in the same manner as other

inmates with a similar sentence," the statement said.

Richie, 25, was originally sentenced to 96 hours in jail, but that was

reduced to 90 hours because of time served when she was arrested.

Richie arrived at jail with her attorney Shawn Chapman Holley and her

boyfriend, Good Charlotte singer Joel Madden. Her time at the Century

Regional Detention Facility was spent getting booked, including taking a

mugshot and submitting her fingerprints, Holley said.

She didn't reach her jail cell.

"She was really treated like any other inmate," Holley said. "I think every

inmate in her position, with that type of charge, would have been treated as

she was."

Just hours before Richie did her time, Lindsay Lohan was charged with seven

misdemeanor drunken-driving and cocaine charges for two arrests in the last

four months. Attorney Blair Berk arranged a plea bargain and Lohan was

sentenced to one day in jail, 10 days of community service and must complete

a drug treatment program. She was also fined and placed on 36 months

probation.

Richie served her 82 minutes at the county jail in suburban Lynwood, the

same place her "The Simple Life" co-star Paris Hilton was housed for nearly

three weeks after she was convicted of driving on a suspended license while

on probation for an alcohol-related reckless driving case.

Richie was arrested on Dec. 11, 2006, after witnesses reported seeing her

black Mercedes-Benz sport utility vehicle headed the wrong way on a freeway

in Burbank. The California Highway Patrol said they found her parked in the

car pool lane.

Richie pleaded guilty in July to a misdemeanor DUI charge in a deal with

prosecutors that helped her avoid a potential year in jail because it was a

second driving-under-the-influence conviction.

Her first conviction was in 2003 for driving under the influence of alcohol.

Richie, the daughter of Lionel Richie, told authorities after being arrested

in December that she had smoked marijuana and taken the prescription

painkiller Vicodin, a CHP officer said at the time. No drugs were found on

her or in her car.