By ANITA BENNETT in Los Angeles and DAVID K. L I in New York
Last Updated: 5:48 AM, April 23, 2011
A judge threw the book at
Lindsay Lohan yesterday, sentencing the troubled actress to 120 days in jail for violating her probation by getting busted for allegedly stealing a necklace.
In a remarkable change of legal fortune, Lohan was taken into custody after LA Superior Court Judge Stephanie Sautner ruled the "Mean Girls" star blew her second chance on a series of previous DUI arrests.
She also was hit with 480 hours of community service -- 360 at LA's Downtown Women's Center and 120 at the LA County morgue. Sautner said working at the women's center could open Lohan's eyes, adding "she might see how needy women live."
Lohan, 24, showed no emotion as several
sheriff's deputies cuffed her and took her behind closed doors before loading her onto a bus bound for the Lynwood Correctional Facility.
However, her father, Michael Lohan, put his hands over his face as the drama played out and bolted from the courtroom.
After spending about five hours locked up, the actress was let out on $75,000 bail while her attorney files an appeal.
The shocking ruling came as the "Freaky Friday" star was in court yesterday for a preliminary hearing on charges she swiped a $2,500 necklace on Jan. 22.
Deputy DA Danette Meyers was pleased that Lohan was hit with jail time -- Lindsay's fourth stint behind bars.
"She is not taking this seriously," Meyers said.
Meyers, who is running for LA district attorney, said Lohan -- who lives in chic Venice, on LA's Westside -- has been getting off easy. Meyers was angry the actress got 120 days instead of the 180 days prosecutors requested.
"I'm just amazed," she said. "There is a different standard on the Westside."
Defense lawyer Shawn Chapman Holley declined comment. Other than her father, no other Lohan relatives were present.
Earlier in the hearing, Lohan put her head in her hands and cried when Sautner refused to dismiss the theft charges. She then caught a big break when the judge downgraded charges from felony grand theft to a misdemeanor - a decision that prosecutors plan to appeal.
That decision was a huge win for Lohan because she now faces one year in county jail instead of three years in state prison. A hearing on the theft charges is set for May 11.
But before court adjourned, the tide turned again for Lohan as prosecutors argued that she should be jailed for violating her probation -- and the judge agreed.
Sautner had harsh words for the actress regarding her alleged theft at Kamofie & Co. jewelry store in Venice, calling it "brazenness, stupidity, I don't know what.
"[The necklace] was in fact hidden in plain sight and she walked out of the store," Sautner said.
Before Sautner's ruling, prosecutors brought store employees to the witness stand, hoping to show how Lohan allegedly helped herself to the necklace.
Lohan was wearing two of her own necklaces when she entered the store, and she wore both pieces to court yesterday, taking them off at one point while her lawyer cross-examined store co-owner Sofia Kaman.
Holley showed Kaman the necklaces and questioned her about why she didn't notice Lohan was still wearing the store's necklace as she left.
"I wasn't looking at her chest," Kaman said. "I was looking at her face."
The owner noticed the necklace was missing 10 minutes after Lohan left.
During the visit to Kamofie, Lohan vowed to come back the next day, Kaman said. When Lohan didn't return in 24 hours, the owner called cops.
Details of Lindsay Lohan’s punishment, as doled out by Judge Stephanie Sautner:
* 120 days in jail for violating probation on a 2007 drunken-driving conviction
* 480 hours for community service –– 360 of those hours at LA’s Downtown Women’s Center and the rest at the LA County morgue
NY Post