On Tuesday, celebrity socialite Paris Hilton, at her arraignment, stuck to her earlier stand that it was hunger and not intoxication that drove her to speed on Hollywood roads and end up with a driving under influence (DUI) arrest in September last year.
Pleading innocent to two misdemeanor counts of drunken driving in her September 6 arrest in Los Angeles, the 25-year-old
Simple Life star's defense counsel Shawn Chapman Holley told the Los Angeles Superior Court that Hilton was looking to pick up a burger from an In-N-Out restaurant when she was apprehended by the police.
Hilton, however, was not present at the court arraignment, where Judge Michael Sauer decided on January 23 as the date for the pretrial hearing. If the trial comes up with a guilty verdict, Hilton could be handed a US$1,000 fine and a six months' incarceration, which might be reduced due to this being her first such offence. She might also be made to undergo alcohol counseling.
The case dates back to September 6 night, when Hilton was stopped by the police on suspicions of DUI, when she was spotted driving her Mercedes-Benz McLaren SLR in a haphazard manner. The reality TV star was made to take a Breathalyzer test and was found have blood alcohol levels that hovered a little above the minimum limit for DUI.
Though Hilton asserted that she had downed only one margarita and wasn't drunk, she was taken into custody and charged with two misdemeanors. She was released soon after amid assertions that she was speeding because she was trying to get herself a burger after spending the day hungry while shooting a music video and then attending a fundraiser. Her publicist Elliot Mintz blamed the Breathalyzer result on the margarita being taken on an empty stomach. Hilton's test registered a little over the 0.08 that is the legal limit for California.
Nevertheless, the hotel heiress seems determined to prove the DUI wrong, blaming her celebrity status for the hype surrounding the arrest, “I had one margarita, was starving because I had not eaten all day. Maybe I was speeding a little bit. I was just really hungry and wanted to have an In-N-Out burger. Everything I do is blown out of proportion,” she said to radio host Ryan Seacrest a day after the incident.
The year 2006 was a mixed one for the
Paris crooner who was voted the second worst celebrity role model of the year by a poll that was topped by her new party buddy Britney Spears. The two were also slammed as the worst dressed celebs of 2006. Hilton, however, patched up last year with good friend and
The Simple Life co-star Nicole Ritchie after their friendship soured in 2005. She also released her debut album
Paris with a single
Stars Are Blind making it to the top 10 of music charts.
