Judge sends Paris back to the pokey

LOS ANGELES – Paris Hilton was sent screaming and crying back to jail Friday after a judge ruled that she must serve out her sentence behind bars rather than in the comfort of her Hollywood Hills home.

“It’s not right!” shouted Hilton, who violated her probation in a reckless driving case. “Mom!” she cried out to her mother.

Hours earlier, the 26-year-old hotel heiress was taken handcuffed from her home in a police car, paparazzi sprinting in pursuit and helicopters broadcasting live from above. She entered the courtroom disheveled and weeping, hair askew, without makeup, wearing a gray sweat shirt over slacks. She cried throughout the hearing.

Hilton was taken to a treatment center at the downtown Twin Towers jail for medical and psychiatric examination to determine which facility she will be held in, said sheriff’s spokesman Steve Whitmore.

“She’ll be there for at least a couple of days,” he said.

Despite being ordered to serve the remainder of her original 45-day sentence, Hilton could still be released early. Inmates are given a day off their terms for every four days of good behavior, and her days in home detention counted as time served.

Superior Court Judge Michael T. Sauer was calm but apparently irked by Sheriff Lee Baca’s decision to release Hilton three days into her sentence due to an unspecified “medical condition.”

“I at no time condoned the actions of the sheriff and at no time told him I approved the actions,” Sauer said. “At no time did I approve the defendant being released from custody to her home.”

The hearing was requested by the city attorney’s office, which had prosecuted Hilton and wanted Baca held in contempt for releasing Hilton despite Sauer’s express order that she must serve her time in jail. The judge took no action on the contempt request.

A member of the county counsel’s staff said Baca was willing to come to court with medical personnel. The judge did not take him up on the offer.