Reality TV star Nicole Richie was sentenced on July 27 to four days in jail after pleading guilty to driving under the influence of drugs, a sentence that comes just weeks after her TV The Simple Life show co-star Paris Hilton was released from jail. Richie, 25, the daughter of pop singer Lionel Richie, was subdued and sombre as she was lectured by the court commissioner Steven K. Lubell about driving down the wrong way on on a Burbank, California, freeway early on Dec. 11, 2007. At the time when police found her Mercedes-Benz sports utility vehicle parked in a carpool lane, Richie said she had smoked marijuana and taken the prescription painkiller Vicodin before getting behind the wheel. Lubell, who also sentenced her, said she was lucky no-one was killed during the incident.
Richie - who entered courthouse on the arm of boyfriend, Good Charlotte frontman, Joel Madden, got credit for six hours she had earlier served in jail, reducing the time she must spend behind bars to 90 hours. She was also given three years' probation and fined US$2,048.
She must complete her 90-hour sentence by September 28. She can serve it in either a city or a county jail.
As to whether to suspend Richie's driver's license, Mr. Lubell let the Californian Department of Motor Vehicles to decide.
