On Nov. 29, Lindsay Lohan was charged with four separate crimes in two states on two different coasts. And they say she hasn’t had an impressive year.
In the 12 days since that impressive feat—she was arrested in New York on a charge of third-degree assault after allegedly punching a woman at a club, and charged with three separate crimes related to June car crash on the Pacific Coast Highway—the hits have just kept coming for the troubled starlet. She’s reportedly struggling to scrape together rent money, sabotaged a Bravo reality show, had her bank accounts seized by the IRS, and been dissed by a Backstreet Boy.
Call it the 12 Days of Lindsay’s Train Wreck.
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Add onto the maelstrom of bad news a critically thrashed Lifetime film, ridiculed SNL appearance, the surfacing of a new half-sister, the quitting of her publicist, and two probations—and it’s nearly impossible to keep track of the swirling chaos of legal woes, financial problems, and various other calamities involving the star. However, attempting the impossible, here’s a specific guide to Lohan’s rap sheet: everything you need to know about LiLo’s legal troubles, and more.
Is she on probation now?
Lohan currently is on probation until May 2014 for stealing a necklace from the Kamofie and Company jewelry store way back in January 2011. The terms of the probation are simple: she simply cannot break the law. Getting to that point, however, was exhaustingly complicated.
She was charged with grand felony theft in February 2011, and sentenced to 120 days in jail and 480 hour of community service after pleading no contest to misdemeanor theft and probation violation. At the time, she was already serving a probation that began when she was arrested on DUI charges in 2007, and which was prolonged after repeat probation violations and subsequent arrests.
In the fall of 2011, a judge ruled that Lohan failed to comply with community service and revoked her probation. She was sentenced to 30 days in jail, but was released just hours after she was booked. She completed her court order to work 12 days a month at a morgue and attend 18 psychotherapy sessions, and her felony probation, again, stemming back to 2007, was ended in March 2012. All that remained for Lohan, then, was her informal probation, again, the parameters of which are that she must stay within the law until May 2014.
What are the four criminal charges she faces?
Lohan was charged with misdemeanor third-degree assault in New York City for allegedly punching a palm reader at the New York nightclub Avenue. No court appearance date has been set yet.
Separately, but on the same day, she was charged with three crimes related to a June car crash in California: giving false information to a police officer, obstructing or resisting an officer in the performance of his duty, and reckless driving. When Lohan’s Porsche hit an 18-wheeler over the summer, the actress said she was not driving, but an investigation proved she had been behind the wheel. The arraignment is expected to happen in the coming weeks.
Will she have her probation revoked?
Short answer: most likely.
Her arrest in New York and the charges recently filed against her don’t mean that the probation is automatically revoked. Says attorney David Wohl, “It’s unlikely the mere arrest of Lohan in New York will result in in her California probation being violated; that is unless she was under the influence at the time and a drug test proves that point. She may claim self-defense in this case and probation will hold off to see if that defense flies before they decide whether or not to violate her.” If she’s convicted of assault in New York, that would, however, violate her probation and any jail time suspended after her previous conviction would have to be served.
The charges in Los Angeles, however, carry fewer caveats. An investigation apparently has already proved that she lied to police after the car crash. When she is arraigned on those charges, it’s highly likely the judge will revoke her probation.
And she’s in financial trouble, too?
Lohan famously earned $1 million for posing for Playboy at the top of the year, in addition to starring in Lifetime’s Liz and Dick film. So where did her money go? On Dec. 3, the IRS seized Lohan’s bank accounts to repay what’s turned out to be a massive debt. She reportedly owes the IRS $234,000 in unpaid taxes from 2009 and 2010, and possibly more for 2011. Charlie Sheen, with whom she filmed a cameo for Scary Movie 5, reportedly lent her $100,000 to help with her money troubles.
Now, it’s also being reported that Lohan can’t pay the $8,000 monthly rent on her Beverly Hills mansion. She reportedly signed the lease for the home in February, when she thought her career was on an upswing—and before the IRS froze her bank accounts—and now she’s allegedly hitting up friends to help pay the rent each month. She also reportedly tried to get out of the lease, but the financial penalty for breaking the contract was too much.
What other trouble has she gotten into this year?
Over the weekend, it was reported that Lohan sabotaged an episode of the Bravo series Million Dollar Decorators set to take place at her mansion. In exchange for $200,000 in a furniture remodel, Lohan was supposed to film a big reveal moment, but allegedly refused. In October, cops responded to a disturbance call outside the Long Island home where she was staying with her mother, after the two got into a massive row. The month before, she had a congressional staffer arrested after she said he assaulted her when she confronted him over photos he took of her. Her father attempted to stage an intervention into her drinking, and it was reported that she had a hitherto unknown half-sister.
That’s not to mention her year in atrocious reviews, beginning with her underwhelming Glee appearance—“I spent more minutes reading about how Lohan allegedly showed up late to the Glee set than I did actually watching her on Glee,” said the Washington Post’s Jen Chaney—her stilted SNL hosting stint—“She just wasn’t ready,” said the Huffington Post’s Mike Ryan—and her critically thrashed turn as Elizabeth Taylor, which was branded “an instant classic of unintentional hilarity” by the Hollywood Reporter’s Tim Goodman.
How many times has she been arrested?
Calculating the different times Lohan has been arrested, arrested and charged, charged, had her probation revoked, and sentenced, is complicated enough to warrant its own question on the SATs or the next version of the AP calculus exam. She was arrested twice in 2007 for DUIs, again in September 2012 for allegedly clipping a man with her car outside New York’s Dream Hotel, and then again in November outside Avenue.
That does not account, however, for the four times her probation was revoked after she broke the law, but wasn’t actually arrested: in May 2010, after she skipped a court date to attend Cannes (she later posted bail); a month later when her ankle-monitoring bracelet went off (a bondsman covered her bond); in September of that year after she flunked a drug test, and in October 2011 after failing to complete her community-service obligations.
She has been jailed six times, though she has spent a total of less than two weeks behind bars. She also has spent 35 days under house arrest, in connection with the necklace theft.
How many times has she been to rehab?
Lohan has been to rehab five times. Her most recent stint began in September 2010 and famously yielded accusations from a Betty Ford staffer that Lohan had attacked her after being asked to complete a drug and alcohol test. The charges were later dropped.
How many car crashes has she been in?
By our count, Lohan has been in six car crashes since 2005. The incident that arguably kicked off her seven-years-long-and-counting legal drama was a 2005 crash at celebrity hotspot The Ivy, for which the driver of the other vehicle filed a negligence lawsuit against the actress.
She’s since run her Benz into a tree (her first DUI arrest in 2007); hit a baby stroller being pushed by a nanny after running a red light (in 2010); was the passenger when her Porsche hit a person and was driven away (in March 2012); ran into the back of an 18-wheeler with her Porsche (the incident she’s charged with lying to the cops about); got into a fender bender with a paparazzo (in July), and allegedly hit a man in September outside the Dream Hotel in New York City, though charges were eventually dropped for insufficient evidence.
How many train wrecks has she been in?
Just one, and it shows no signs of stopping. Here’s to a better 2013, LiLo.
