Celebrity Justice for Lohan and Richie?

Aug. 24, 2007 — -- It's a fundamental American principle: All people are equal in the eyes of the law. But after Nicole Richie and Lindsay Lohan escaped harsh punishment for their DUI and drug-related convictions, it's hard not to wonder if celebrities are a bit more equal than everyone else.

On Thursday, after prosecutors filed seven misdemeanor drunken driving and cocaine possession charges against her, the 21-year-old Lohan reached a plea deal that calls for her to spend one day in jail, serve 10 days of community service and complete drug and alcohol treatment programs. She was also placed on 36 months probation and issued hundreds of dollars of fines.

While her fellow party girl was brokering her deal, Richie quietly slipped in and out of jail, serving 82 minutes of her 96-hour sentence for a misdemeanor DUI charge. She went in with credit for one day of jail time because she was in custody for six hours after her July arrest. According to Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy Maribel, the 25-year-old reality TV star was released "based on her sentence and federal guidelines."

Serving just minutes of jail time for a crime that kill tens of thousands of people each year may seem outrageous, and lawyers who specialize in DUI cases agree that Richie and Lohan's punishments are light. Though they hesitate to say that celebrity status swayed the courts in either case, they admit that both starlets were able to wriggle out of harsher sentences in ways that the average American probably could not.

"Do I think it was star treatment? No," said Los Angeles DUI lawyer Scott Spindel of Richie's 82-minute stint in jail. "But do I think she may have gotten a little more attention than the average person who would have had to sit there in handcuffs? Yes. I've never had a client get out in 82 minutes. Something was going on. It was not just 'Oops, we got lucky.'"

Lawrence Taylor, a Los Angeles attorney who deals exclusively with DUI cases, contends that officials at the Lynwood county detention center where Richie served her time may have had good reason to let her hop in and out of the facility, which, like many Los Angeles jails, is overcrowded and overwhelmed.