Lindsay Lohan denies theft of necklace
The actor is charged with grand theft and faces up to three years in jail if convicted
Indsay Lohan has pleaded not guilty to stealing a $2,500 necklace from a Los Angeles jewellery store.
Dressed in white for a brief court appearance, the actor, 24, was charged with a single count of felony grand theft. If convicted, she could be sent to prison for up to three years, prosecutors say.
Lohan is accused of walking out of a Los Angeles jewellery store without paying for a gold designer necklace in January – three weeks after ending her fifth stint in drug and alcohol rehab in three years.
Lohan’s lawyer entered the not guilty plea for the Mean Girls star at the televised hearing in a packed courtroom.
Friends have said Lohan believed the necklace, which has been returned to police, was on loan.
The felony grand theft charge is the most serious allegation yet against the actor in more than three years of failed drugs tests, brief spells in jail and missed court appearances.
“You are are no different than anyone else, so please don’t push your luck,” Judge Keith Schwartz told Lohan, saying the felony charge was different from previous charges against her because it is considered a more serious crime with greater punishment.
Lohan is still on probation for a 2007 drink-driving and cocaine possession offence that has halted her once promising Hollywood career. If convicted of the theft charge, she would also be in violation of her probation, which would mean even more jail time.
Lohan also faces possible criminal charges for an alleged attack on a worker at the Betty Ford Centre in southern California during a three-month stint in rehab which ended in January. That case is under review by prosecutors.
The actor made her name as an 11-year-old in the Disney movie The Parent Trap and went on to have hits with Freaky Friday and Herbie Fully Loaded.
But her latest stint in rehab cost her the lead role in a planned movie about the 1970s porn star Linda Lovelace. Her last movie, the action comedy Machete, made just $26.6m at US box offices after it was released in September
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