BACA DEFENDS HANDLING OF CELEB CASE: PARIS GOT A RAW DEAL.

Byline: TROY ANDERSON

Staff Writer

In a tense exchange with county supervisors, Sheriff Lee Baca defended his handling of celebrity heiress Paris Hilton on Tuesday and said Hilton's 23-day prison stay was longer than most inmates with similar sentences.

The confrontation came little more than 12 hours after Hilton strode out of jail, renewing public criticism about Baca's defiance of a judicial order earlier this month when he let the celeb go after serving just three days of a 45-day sentence for driving offenses.

An angry judge ordered Hilton returned to jail, where she stayed until Tuesday just after midnight.

But Baca vehemently denied any favoritism Tuesday and said he feared for Hilton's life when he released her early.

He also cited data that show an overcrowded prison system in which many inmates serve far less time than their actual sentence.

"The data shows there wasn't any preferential treatment," Baca said. "In fact, the preferential treatment given to Paris Hilton is that she served more time than anyone else for this offense."

After Hilton had served a few days in jail, Baca said, he also was faced with the "unusual situation" of Hilton being unable to tell personnel what dosages and types of medications she had been taking.

Baca, who declined to release Hilton's medical reports, said the hotel heiress's two doctors also had prescribed different medications but refused to communicate with each another.

Baca said those factors led him to release Hilton early to serve out her sentence at home with electronic monitoring.

"Our doctors said we had no solutions for her medical problems," Baca said. "I think we all in this room know something about suicidal inmates, inmates killing inmates and inmates dying in our jails. As the sheriff of this county, I'm not going to let any inmate die.

"In this case, we are dealing with someone who violated their probation by driving on a suspended driver's license. What's worth more? Serving time on a suspended driver's license or a person losing their life?"

But several members of the Board of Supervisors had trouble with Baca's story, questioning Baca closely and saying the jail system has its own medical facilities that could be used to treat Hilton.

They also noted that Hilton made limited use of those medical facilities after Judge Michael T. Sauer ordered her back to jail to serve the rest of her sentence.

"We have a county health facility at the Twin Towers Correctional Facility, which she was subsequently placed in," Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich said. "And obviously they did their job. After a few days there, she was able to go to the (Century Regional Detention Facility in Lynwood).

"It was not an issue of overcrowdedness, but an issue of health. Her attorney had the responsibility of bringing her medical condition to the attention of the judge. It wasn't the department's prerogative to overrule the judge's decision or circumvent procedures when you have a medical problem and medical facilities to handle these problems."

Supervisor Don Knabe was also puzzled by Baca's story.

"She looked pretty healthy at the MTV (Movie) Awards Sunday night prior to going to jail," Knabe said.

"I don't understand all the analysis and esoteric conversation, but all you had to do was give the judge the medical report and you would have been on your way."

After Hilton's early release, Antonovich said, judges are now getting requests from other inmates who want to be released from jail early to electronic home monitoring for health-related reasons.

"A precedent has been established with this violation of a court order," Antonovich said.

But Baca said he asked Undersheriff Larry Waldie to call Sauer before he released Hilton.

And Waldie told the supervisors the judge had seemed disinterested in the situation.

"When I talked to Judge Sauer and told him what our intent was, he told me quite frankly he didn't care ... and said, 'I'm not going to do anything,'" Waldie said.

Court spokesman Allan Parachini, however, said Sauer told Waldie he was not happy they were releasing her and "stood by the sentencing order."

But Baca also argued that Hilton was not the first inmate to be released early because of medical reasons.

Baca said the county jail system has had a severe shortage of beds for two decades and is under a federal judge's order not to let inmates sleep on the floors and keep the population at 20,000 inmates.

As a result, Baca said he is forced to release many inmates, especially low-level offenders, after serving only 10percent of their sentences -- including people who violate their probation by driving on a suspended license.

In the 12 months prior to June1, 382 women were sentenced to jail for driving on a suspended license. Of those, the vast majority were sentenced to 10 to 44 days. Just 2percent were sentenced to 45 days.

Of those sentenced to 45 days, like Hilton, all served less than six days in jail. Of those inmates sentenced to 10 days, 77percent served less than two days in jail.

Still, political analyst Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, a senior scholar at the University of Southern California School of Planning and Policy, questioned Baca's rationale.

"I don't understand his explanation that the two doctors weren't talking to one another, which I think is very unprofessional behavior," Jeffe said.

"I find it very unlikely that a law enforcement officer could not get that information if he had tried hard enough. Whether or not he did the right thing legally or medically, the problem for him politically is that the perception is not good."

troy.anderson(at)dailynews.com

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The sheriff's case