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LOS ANGELES - Actress Michelle Rodriguez has been sentenced to 180 days in a Los Angeles jail for violating her probation on previous drunken-driving and hit-and-run offences.
A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge ordered the former Lost actress to jail after she admitted failing to complete community service obligations contrary to a signed document stating otherwise, city attorney spokesman Frank Mateljan said. She must start her term by Christmas Eve.
Rodriguez, 29, was also found to have consumed alcohol on at least three occasions while wearing a monitoring bracelet around her ankle, in violation of a probation requirement she refrain from drinking for 90 days, Mateljan said.
The probation violation stems from a 2004 plea of no contest -- the equivalent of guilty -- to three traffic offences in Los Angeles, including hit-and-run and drunken driving.
She was previously sentenced to 60 days in jail for a probation violation in May 2006, but was released after just four hours and 20 minutes due to overcrowding.
She was also sentenced to five days in jail in Hawaii in 2006 after she was found guilty in a separate drunken-driving case. In that instance, Rodriguez opted for jail after turning down a judge's offer to perform community service.
In the latest case, Judge Daviann Mitchell ordered that Rodriguez not be granted work furlough, early release or home confinement. She was also ordered to complete her 30 days of service for the state transportation department.
The actress first won acclaim for her portrait of a young pugilist in the 2000 indie film Girlfight and went on to star in such movies as The Fast and the Furious and Blue Crush. Her Lost character, police officer Ana-Lucia Cortez, was killed off after about two dozen episodes.
No representative was immediately available for comment.
- REUTERS
