Hilton's prosecutor under fire for double standard

By Steve Gorman

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The city prosecutor who condemned Paris Hilton's early release from jail as celebrity favoritism is now under fire for a case of special treatment closer to home -- acknowledging his wife was wanted for arrest for nine years.

The disclosure, first reported by the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday, is the latest in a mushrooming scandal that has engulfed City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo, who ran for California attorney general last year but lost.

According to the Times, a warrant for his wife's arrest was issued by a judge in 1998 after she failed to appear in court on charges of driving without insurance on a suspended license in an unregistered car.

Michelle Delgadillo, originally charged under her maiden name, was never detained in the nine intervening years, though the court order for her arrest remained valid until Wednesday.

Hours after the Times story broke, she appeared in court to plead no contest to a misdemeanor charge of driving without a license, and the warrant was canceled.

She was sentenced to 12 months on probation and fined $431, according to a spokesman for Delgadillo's office.

The turn of events was especially embarrassing for Delgadillo because it came two weeks after he publicly chided Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca for releasing Hilton from jail early and placing her under house arrest for unspecified medical problems.

Hilton, the celebrity heiress and star of the reality TV show "The Simple Life," originally was sentenced to 45 days behind bars for driving on a suspended license in violation of her probation in a previous drunken-driving case.