Sun Devil Sports & Entertainment Law Students Association & Journal

Paris Hilton

Paris Hilton plead guilty to two misdemeanor counts of drug possession and obstruction of an officer this morning in a Las Vegas court.  Ms. Hilton entered the guilty pleas in exchange for a felony cocaine possession charge being dropped. When initially arrested Hilton had told officers the purse containing the cocaine was not hers.  She has now come clean and admitted that she lied about it.  Had she been found guilty of the felony charge she would have faced serious jail time.

Hilton was arrested on August 27 after her boyfriend was pulled over for a traffic stop.  The officer reported smelling marijuana odor coming from the car driven by Cy Waits.  While being questioned by the officer a small plastic bag of cocaine (less than a gram) fell out of the purse Paris was holding.

This is just another instance of a celebrity getting a reduced sentence based on their notoriety.  Hilton’s sentence includes a year of probation, 200 hours of community service, a $2000 fine, and the completion of an intensive substance abuse program as an outpatient.  The judge said it is not unusual for such felonies to be reduced to misdemeanors for defendants with no criminal record.  What about those who, like Hilton, do have a criminal record?  In 2006 Hilton was arrested for drunken driving which she parlayed with three additional arrests for driving on a suspended license.  In 2007 she spent a total of 20 days in jail for the DUI.  Is this really someone who has learned their lesson and deserves a reduced sentence for drug charges?

If arrested again during her one year probation, Hilton faces a year in jail.  Judge Joe Bonaventure told her that any arrest other than a minor traffic violation would trigger a probation violation ruling.  To solidify the seriousness of violating her probation the judge emphasized that the “Clark County Detention Center is not the Waldorf Astoria”.  Paris is claiming to friends that she is “over being a party girl” and wants to “trade in the club scene for a life at home”.  Only time will tell if she actually grows up and becomes a responsible adult as she says she wants to be.  Clearly spending 20 days in an LA jail did not serve as a wake up call.