Paris Hilton gets out of jail for medical reasons

By Steve Gorman

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Hotel heiress Paris Hilton was let out of jail early and put under house arrest on Thursday, drawing fire from prosecutors and court officials and sparking public debate about celebrity justice.

Los Angeles City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo said he was "concerned that the judicial process may have been improperly circumvented" and directed his office to open an inquiry.

A statement from the Los Angeles Superior Court said the decision to release Hilton for unspecified health reasons after she had served three days of her three-week sentence was made without the consent of the sentencing judge.

And at least three members of the five-member county Board of Supervisers challenged the early release. One, Yvonne Burke, called for an investigation. Another, Mike Antonovich, called it "a mockery of due process."

"You're dealing with a spoiled brat, acting out to get her way instead of serving her time as was adjudicated by the courts," he said.

Officials said Hilton, 26, was sent home early on Thursday wearing an electronic ankle bracelet to track her movements and ordered confined to her Hollywood Hills house for 40 days.

Hilton, who has lampooned her own image as a clueless child of privilege while starring in the reality TV show "The Simple Life," turned herself in on Sunday night to begin a jail term for violating her probation in a drunken-driving case.

Los Angeles County sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said Hilton was "reassigned" to the county's Community-Based Alternatives to Custody (CBAC) program for medical reasons after "extensive consultations" with doctors at the jail and others, including the sentencing judge.