Hilton ordered back to county jail

Paris Hilton yesterday was ordered to return to her solitary cell, a day after she had been sent home to house arrest and became the center of a storm of protest that she was being treated better than someone less famous.

Superior Court Judge Michael Sauer made his ruling after a hearing that followed a tumultuous sequence in which Hilton was brought to court in a sheriff's patrol car. Earlier, it seemed that she would attend the hearing via telephone.

"The defendant is remanded to L.A. County jail," Sauer said after an hourlong hearing. "The order is final and forthwith."

Wearing a beige zippered sweater, Hilton crumpled into tears.

As she was led away to the side door and the waiting transportation to jail, she wailed, "Mom, Mom! It's not right!" Her earlier sojourn to the courthouse wasn't quite the scene of police chasing O.J. Simpson, but Hilton was part of the official caravan that wound its way from the Hollywood Hills east to the downtown courthouse.

Some television stations accorded Hilton the honor reserved for dignitaries' departures and the mundane cases of road rage: live television coverage.

A crying Hilton sat in the back seat, wearing handcuffs and sweats. She entered a black-and-white police car that was parked in the driveway next to one of the family cars, a Bentley. Then, lights flashing, off she rode to meet her fate.

Hilton went to Sauer's courtroom yesterday morning because the city attorney's office opposed the 26-year-old heiress's release from jail Thursday.

She had served only a little more than three days of her sentence when Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca decided she was too ill to serve more time.

But the Hilton affair has moved beyond the courtroom to become as much of a media circus as a test case on whether wealth and notoriety buy special treatment from the judicial system.

Sauer originally sentenced Hilton to 45 days in jail after the professional party girl, reality-show actress and self-defined singer repeatedly violated her probation on alcohol-related reckless driving charges.

At the courthouse yesterday, there was the usual mob scene, not only of journalists, but also of people waiting to deal with traffic issues.

Rodolfo Cepeda, 41, a trucking company employee, arrived about 8:10 a.m. to pay a traffic ticket. He was one of hundreds of people waiting outside the courthouse.

"I thought it's crazy. I thought it was going to be in and out. I told them (at work) that I'd be there about 9 or 9:30, but I don't think so. I'll have to call in. There is nothing we can do. We're here already. We have to wait."

By ANDREW BLANKSTEIN and TAMI ABDOLLAH

Los Angeles Times