Judge: Lindsay Lohan Can Be Released on Bail, After All

Sept. 24, 2010 — -- It looks like Lindsay Lohan will get out of the slammer, after all.

After one judge ordered her held without bail until a court hearing next month, a second judge cleared the way for her release on $300,000 bail on several conditions -- including that she be fitted with an alcohol-monitoring bracelet within 24 hours of her release and refrain from drinking alcohol or possessing controlled substances, The Associated Press reported.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Patricia Schnegg set the bail after Lohan's attorney appealed another ruling earlier in the day. Schnegg ruled that defendants in misdemeanor cases such as Lohan's are entitled to bail.

Earlier, Superior Court Judge Elden Fox ordered the troubled actress, 24, taken into custody without bail and scheduled Lohan's next court appearance for Oct. 22.

Clad in a flowing white skirt, a form fitting black top and a blazer, Lohan showed no emotion as she was handcuffed and led out of court. She arrived in court with her mother, Dina Lohan. Her estranged father, Michael Lohan, also showed up for her court hearing.

Lohan's return to jail came after her admission last week that she failed a court-mandated drug test.

"Regrettably, I did in fact fail my most recent drug test and if I am asked, I am prepared to appear before Judge Fox next week as a result," Lohan wrote on her Twitter account last week. "I am so thankful for the support of my fans, loved ones and immediate family, who understand that i am trying hard, but also that I am a work in progress, just as anyone else. I am keeping my faith, and I am hopeful....Thank you all!!!"

The stint behind bars was Lohan's third round in jail for a three-year-old drug and DUI case filed after a two highly publicized arrests in 2007. Lohan left a rehab program at UCLA Medical Center on Aug. 24 after 23 days of treatment. Earlier in August, she was released from jail after serving just 13 days of a 90 day sentence for violating her probation.

At a hearing last month, Fox ordered Lohan to go to weekly psychotherapy and behavioral therapy sessions, in addition to 12-step dependency program meetings and mandatory drug tests. Fox said if Lohan was found to be in violation of the terms of her probation, she could go to jail again for 30 days. Last week, prior to Lohan's Twitter admission, TMZ.com reported that she tested positive for cocaine.

It's not a surprise that Lohan was sent back to jail.

"A judge will routinely revoke probation when he receives a report from a probation officer, under oath, that the probationer has violated a condition of probation, such as illegal drug use," said Dana Cole, a criminal defense attorney and partner in the law firm Cole and Loeterman in Los Angeles.

In recent months, Lohan has maintained that she's more than a problem child. In an interview with Vanity Fair magazine, done prior to her last jail and rehab stint, Lohan said she wants A-list status in Hollywood again, by any means necessary.

"I want my career back," she said. "I want the respect that I had when I was doing great movies. And if that takes not going out to a club at night, then so be it. It's not fun anyway.

"I don't care what anyone says. I know that I'm a damn good actress," she continued. "And I know that in my past I was young and irresponsible, but that's what growing up is. You learn from your mistakes."

Lohan appeared on Vanity Fair's September cover and in the magazine, lounging on the beach, evoking old Hollywood glamour. Her problems, however, are firmly in the camp of today's tabloid-prone celebrities.

A probation report released in July revealed that Lohan has prescriptions for the antidepressants Zoloft and Trazodone; Adderall, a stimulant used to control attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder; the acid reflux medicine Nexium and the powerful painkiller Dilaudid.

"I've never abused prescription drugs," Lohan said.

"I never have, never in my life," she continued. "I have no desire to. That's not who I am. I've admitted to the things that I've done -- to, you know, dabbling in certain things and trying things 'cause I was young and curious and thought it was like, OK, 'cause other people were doing it and other people put it in front of me. And I see what happened in my life because of it."

Lohan also insisted that despite multiple DUI arrests and rehab stays, she's not an alcoholic.

"If I were the alcoholic everyone says I am, then putting a [SCRAM] bracelet on [to measure alcohol in one's perspiration] would have ended me up in detox, in the emergency room, because I would have had to come down from all the things that people say I'm taking and my father says I'm taking -- so that says something, because I was fine," she explained.