Lohan’s tiresome act

In the latest episode of Lindsay Lohan: The Reality Show, the 24-year old actress appeared in court on charges of felony grand theft for allegedly stealing a $2,500 necklace from a Venice boutique. The judge warned her that if she violated the law this time, she could wind up back in jail. “You’re no different than anyone else,” he told her.

But of course she’s different. For starters, few people would wear a body-hugging short white dress and high heels to plead not guilty on felony grand theft charges. Nor would they send flowers to the boutique they allegedly stole from. (What must the card have read?) Most young people in trouble don’t have paparazzi chasing them or high-end lawyers defending them.

The real evidence that she’s different is that judges keep telling her she’s not and warning her that this is absolutely the last time they will tolerate her assorted probation violations. (She got a similar warning last year when she missed a court date with the excuse that someone had stolen her passport in Cannes.)

So is the justice system treating her as it would treat any other troubled young adult who ends up under a cascade of legal woes? She had two DUIs within months of each other in 2007 with an admission of drug use, followed by probation violations, followed by jail and locked-down rehab treatment, followed by a failed drug test, another day in jail, then a judicial order back to rehab and a stern warning from the judge that if she violated again, he would send her back to jail. Oh, and there’s the Riverside County investigation — still underway — into whether she should be charged with misdemeanor battery for a dust-up with a Betty Ford Center staffer during her stay there. And now the alleged necklace theft.

Common sense suggests that Lohan is being treated generously. Despite infraction after infraction and threat after threat, in her visit to jail last summer she served a mere 13 days of a 90-day sentence.

But common sense doesn’t always tell the whole story. The reality is that in L.A. County’s overcrowded jail system, nonviolent offenders often have their sentences drastically reduced. And it’s hard to tell what’s the “usual” punishment for repeat infractions like Lohan’s because judges and prosecutors have so much leeway that there is no one-size-fits-all solution.

Two things would help. First, we’d like assurances, and evidence if possible, that officials involved in the Lohan case are doing everything they can to treat her the same way they’d treat anyone else in the system — neither more harshly nor more leniently. And second, we’d like to feel confident that if people misbehave time and again, eventually they will be punished for it.

Lohan is troubled and spoiled, and we hope that she’ll be treated in a manner appropriate to her actions, even if that means she has to go back to jail.