Paris Hilton sentenced to 45 days in jail By Steve Gorman Yesterday at 5:38 pm A shocked Paris Hilton was ordered on Friday to spend 45 days in jail after a Los Angeles judge ruled the hotel heiress and socialite violated her probation for alcohol-related reckless driving. Superior Court judge Michael Sauer said he believed the 26-year-old reality TV star knowingly disobeyed the law by driving while her license was suspended and ordered her to report to jail on June 5. "I think she has wanted to disregard everything that was said and continued to drive no matter what," Sauer before passing sentence. He added, "The probation is revoked. Forty-five days in jail." Sauer made the decision after a two-hour hearing during which Hilton insisted she was unaware that her driving privileges had been suspended when she was pulled over for driving without headlights on February 27. Hilton said her publicist Elliott Mintz had told her she was permitted to drive for work-related reasons. "I did not want to break the law," she told the judge "I did what I was told. I would never drive just because I want to. I follow the law and I respect the law. From now on I want to pay complete attention to everything." "I just want to say I'm sorry," she said before being sentenced. But the judge said he did not believe Hilton was ignorant of her driving restrictions saying she had "completely ignored" a notice given to her by a police officer that she had signed during an earlier traffic stop in January notifying her that her license was suspended. After sentence was imposed, Hilton's mother Kathy yelled at a prosecutor "you're pathetic." The socialite's attorney, Howard Weitzman, said she was singled out for being a celebrity. "To sentence Paris Hilton to 45 days in jail is inappropriate and borders on ludicrous. It is clear that she has been selectively targeted for prosecution for who she is. "I think she was honest in her testimony. We do intend to appeal to the judge and to a higher court to modify the sentence." Hilton was placed on three years probation earlier this year for pleading no contest -- the equivalent of a guilty plea -- to alcohol-related reckless driving after a September 2006 arrest in Hollywood She landed in hot water again in late February, when she was pulled over on Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood for driving without headlights. Police impounded her car, a $190,000 blue Bentley, when they discovered she was driving on a suspended license. Hilton's latest legal problems come a little more than three weeks before her reality TV show, "The Simple Life," co-starring her friend Nicole Richie," returns to the airwaves for a fifth season. The series has already been taped
