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LOS ANGELES: Troubled American starlet Lindsay Lohan was released after spending less than five hours in jail when she posted $75,000 in bail, court officials said Saturday.
The 24-year-old was sentenced late Friday to 120 days in jail for violating her probation and ordered to complete community service at the Los Angeles County morgue and a women's center.
Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Stephanie Sautner ruled she had violated her probation for a 2007 drug and drunk driving offense when she allegedly stole a $2,500 necklace from a jewelry store in the Los Angeles seafront neighborhood of Venice Beach where she lives.
It was the fourth time that Lohan - once the promising child star of hit Disney movies “The Parent Trap” and “Freaky Friday” - got a taste of life behind bars as her career hits the skids.
Once again she had to don an orange prison uniform when she was taken around 5:00pm (0000 GMT) to a women's detention center in Los Angeles.
She was released a few hours later after paying the bail of $75,000, a spokesman for the sheriff's office said.
“Lohan, 24, was released from Century Regional Detention Facility at 9:20 pm after posting $75,000 bail,” the statement said.
Her lawyer, Shawn Chapman Holley, had arranged for her bail and has already filed an appeal regarding the probation violation, including the 480 hours of community service.
But Lohan did score one legal victory when Sautner reduced her charge for stealing the necklace from a felony to a misdemeanor, which could cut the amount of prison time she faces if convicted.
A pre-trial hearing is set for May 11, with the trial due to open on June 3.
It was the latest in a long list of legal tangles for the star, who now has a reputation for hard partying in Hollywood.
In July Lohan was sentenced to 90 days in jail and another 90 days in rehab for violating her probation in a drunk-driving case. But due to jail overcrowding, she served just 13 days before being freed to the detox facility.
She was jailed again on September 25, but granted bail after only 15 hours behind bars and subsequently checked into rehab.
In 2007, she spent just 84 minutes in jail after police arrested her twice for cocaine possession while driving - in one instance crashing her Mercedes-Benz into a tree.
She completed a court-ordered spell in rehab for drug addiction in January.
A queen of Hollywood nights and a favorite target of the paparazzi, the former Disney child star was once considered one of the most promising actresses of her generation.
But Lohan's career has dipped many times since 2005 amid legal woes, visits to rehab and movie flops.
