Lindsay Lohan's driving case returns to LA court

The Associated Press, Wednesday, January 30, 2013, 12:48am (PST)

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A judge who has sentenced Lindsay Lohan to jail before will conduct her first hearing Wednesday on new misdemeanor charges of lying to authorities and reckless driving against the trouble-prone actress.

Lohan has been ordered to appear before Judge Stephanie Sautner for the scheduling hearing, which is the first time the actress has been required to appear in court in nearly a year.

Prosecutors in Santa Monica, Calif., have charged Lohan with lying to police about driving a sports car that crashed into a dump truck in June, reckless driving and obstructing officers from performing their duties.

In March, Sautner released her from supervised probation but warned her to stop partying and grow up.

"You need to live your life in a more mature way, stop the nightclubbing and focus on your work," Sautner told Lohan at the time. The admonition came after the judge conducted several monthly updates with the actress and required her to perform morgue cleanup duty to complete her sentence in a 2007 drunken driving case.

Lohan has since filmed two movies but has repeatedly gotten into trouble, including a pair of arrests in New York that have not resulted in charges.

She was on probation for theft at the time of the wreck in California, and Sautner had warned the actress she could be sentenced to 245 days in jail if she didn't behave. She has pleaded not guilty and a Feb. 27 trial date has been set.

The latest hearing may also resolve who will be Lohan's lawyer for the criminal case. New York attorney Mark Heller has petitioned to join the case, but his involvement must be approved by Sautner.

Heller was traveling on Tuesday and did not return a phone message.

___

Anthony McCartney can be reached at http://twitter.com/mccartneyAP