Tuesday 7 May 2013

Lindsay Lohan rehab: Rehab Center is unlicensed, claims state official

Lindsay Lohan rehab: Rehab Center is unlicensed, claims state official, The facility Lindsay Lohan entered Thursday to comply with court-ordered rehab is not licensed to provide alcohol or drug rehab treatment, a state official said. Lohan, 26, flew from New York to California last night to check into Morningside Recovery in Newport Beach, California, by the Thursday morning deadline for her to start her 90-day sentence. When Los Angeles Superior Judge James Dabney sentenced Lohan to 90 days in jail in March he gave her the option of serving the time in a "lock down rehab" facility.

"If a 24-hour residential facility is providing treatment or services to promote the recovery of alcohol and drug abuse then they must possess a license," deputy director for the California Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs Millicent Tidwell said. None of Morningside's several California locations are licensed, Tidwell said. The company previously had three licenses, but they were all revoked. The state's licensing agency is currently in litigation with Morningside's unlicensed Newport Beach facility, she said. Edition.Cnn reports

It is not known if prosecutors will ask the judge to order Lohan to move to another facility or else be sent to jail to serve out the sentence. The city attorneys for Santa Monica and Los Angeles, who were jointly prosecuting the actress, did not immediately respond to CNN inquiries. Judge Dabney ordered the treatment after Lohan entered pleas of no contest on charges relating to a traffic accident and she was found in violation of her shoplifting probation with those convictions. "It's not her fault," her father said. "This poor kid was a mess before she left." Her lawyer, Mark Heller, arranged for Lohan to check into Morningside Recovery without approval by the prosecutors, he said. "Lindsay had no idea that Morningside wasn't approved," Michael Lohan said.

Heller appeared in a Los Angeles court to discuss the matter with the judge and prosecutors Thursday morning.

Her father, who has bitterly opposed Heller's representation of Lohan, said he has been urging his daughter to go the the Lukens Institute in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, which bills itself as a "luxury rehab center."

"The Lukens Institute is where she wanted to go all along -- a place she will get the right treatment and finally get better," Michael Lohan said.

Her six years of legal troubles trace back to two drunken driving arrests in 2007 and include other incidents in which she was behind the wheel.

Lohan was charged with reckless driving and lying to a police officer about a June 2012 car crash in which her Porsche crashed in to a dump truck on the Pacific Coast Highway in Santa Monica, California. Her arrest triggered the probation violation charge.

The police report said Lohan denied being behind the wheel, but the prosecutor was expected to call witnesses who say she was driving.

Lindsay Lohan acknowledged her drug and alcohol addiction in past court appearances.

She's spent 250 days in five rehab facilities since January 2007, including one long court-ordered stint after a failed drug test.

The actress has appeared in court at least 20 times before four Los Angeles judges who have now found her in violation of probation six times and sentenced her to a total of nine months in jail.

Lohan has spent about two weeks behind bars in six trips to the Los Angeles County jail, served 35 days under house arrest and worked about 67 days of community service at the county morgue.

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