LOS ANGELES - She was taken handcuffed and crying from her home. She was escorted into court disheveled, without makeup, hair askew and face red with tears.
Crying out for her mother when she was ordered back to jail, Paris Hilton's cool, glamorous image evaporated Friday as she gave the impression of a little girl lost in a merciless legal system.
"It's not right!" shouted the weeping Hilton. "Mom!" she called out to Kathy Hilton, who also was in tears.
The 26-year-old hotel heiress tried to move toward her parents but was steered away by two sheriff's deputies, who held her by each arm and hustled her from the courtroom.
Superior Court Judge Michael T. Sauer was apparently unmoved by the pleas of Hilton's lawyers to send her back to home confinement because of an unspecified medical condition. He ordered Hilton returned to a Los Angeles County jail to serve the rest of her 45-day sentence for violating probation in an alcohol-related reckless driving case.
The judge gave no explanation for his ruling. But his comments showed he was affronted by county Sheriff Lee Baca's decision to set aside his instructions and release Hilton after three days in jail to finish her time in the luxury of her Hollywood Hills home.
Her lawyers said the reason for her release was an unspecified medical condition. The judge suggested that could be taken care of at jail medical facilities.
After the hearing, Hilton was taken to a correctional treatment center at the downtown Twin Towers jail for medical and psychiatric examination to determine which facility she will be held in, said sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore.
"She'll be there for at least a couple of days," he said.
The sheriff defended his decision, citing jail crowding - although Hilton was in a special unit and did not have a cellmate - and what he termed "severe medical problems."
He said he had learned from one of her doctors that she was not taking a certain medication while previously in custody, and that her "inexplicable deterioration" puzzled county psychiatrists.
Baca also charged that Hilton received a more severe sentence than the usual penalty for such a crime, which he said would have been either no jail time or direct placement in home confinement with electronic monitoring.
"The only thing I can detect as special treatment is the amount of her sentence," the sheriff said.
But he said he would not try to overrule the judge's decision again.
Hilton's jailhouse saga began Sept. 7, when she failed a sobriety test after police saw her weaving down a street in her Mercedes-Benz on what she said was a late-night hamburger run.
She pleaded no contest to reckless driving and was sentenced to 36 months' probation, alcohol education and $1,500 in fines. In the months that followed she was stopped twice while driving on a suspended license. The second stop landed her in Sauer's courtroom.
After being taken to court Friday in a black-and-white police car, paparazzi sprinting in pursuit and helicopters broadcasting live from above, Hilton entered the courtroom weeping and continued to cry throughout the hearing, which lasted more than an hour.
Her blond hair was pulled back in a disheveled knot, in contrast to the glamorous side-swept style in her booking photo earlier in the week. She was wrapped in a long, gray fuzzy sweat shirt over slacks.
Several times she turned to her parents, seated behind her in the courtroom, and mouthed, "I love you." At one point, she made the sign of the cross and appeared to be praying.
Her body shook constantly as she cried, clutching a ball of tissue, tears running down her face.
Seconds later, the judge announced his decision: "The defendant is remanded to county jail to serve the remainder of her 45-day sentence. This order is forthwith."
Hilton screamed.
Eight deputies immediately ordered all spectators out of the courtroom. Hilton's mother, Kathy, threw her arms around her husband, Rick, and sobbed uncontrollably.
Deputies escorted Hilton out of the room, holding each of her arms as she looked back.
Despite being reincarcerated, she could still be released early. Inmates are given a day off their terms for every four days of good behavior, and her days in home detention counted as custody days. It appeared that Friday would count as her sixth day. Baca indicated she would serve about 18 more days.
Friday's hearing was delayed by a misunderstanding. Hilton apparently thought she was going to be able to participate from home by telephone. But the judge, who had not authorized that, angrily denounced a media outlet for spreading the rumor, although a court spokesman also gave that information to news media. He ordered sheriff's deputies to go to Hilton's home and take her to court. The process took nearly two hours.
Once the hearing began, Sauer was blunt in his criticism of the sheriff for disobeying his orders, which specifically banned home confinement with electronic monitoring.
"I at no time condoned the actions of the sheriff and at no time told him I approved the actions," he said. "At no time did I approve the defendant being released from custody to her home."
The hearing was requested by the city attorney's office, which had prosecuted Hilton and wanted Baca held in contempt for releasing Hilton despite Sauer's order that she go to jail. The judge didn't act on the contempt request.
Hilton's attorney, Richard Hutton, implored the judge to hear testimony in his chambers about Hilton's medical condition before deciding whether to send her to jail. The judge did not respond.
The last lawyer to speak was a deputy city attorney, David Bozanich, who declared: "This is a simple case. There was a court. The Sheriff's Department chose to violate that order. There is no ambiguity."
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Associated Press writer John Rogers in Los Angeles contributed to the report.
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