'Lost' actress ends jail time

April 29, 2006

By Peter Boylan
Advertiser Staff Writer

Actress Michelle Rodriguez was released from an O'ahu prison yesterday and will now await the decision of a Los Angeles County court judge who will rule on her probation in California next week.

Rodriguez, 27, was released from the O'ahu Community Correctional Center early yesterday after serving time for drunk driving. She is scheduled for a probation revocation hearing in Los Angeles on Wednesday.

Rodriguez was sentenced to three years' probation June 4, 2004, and ordered to undergo a 30-day substance-abuse treatment program after pleading no contest to three misdemeanors in 2003 related to two different traffic incidents in Los Angeles, according to records filed in Los Angeles Superior Court.

The charges involved hit and run, property damage, driving with a suspended license and driving under the influence with a blood-alcohol level above .08, the records show.

Rodriguez, who plays police officer Ana Lucia on the award-winning ABC series "Lost," was sentenced to five days in jail and fined $500 Tuesday in Kane'ohe District Court after pleading guilty to driving drunk in Kailua late last year.

She turned herself in to state sheriffs Tuesday a little after 2 p.m. to start serving her jail time. She was released between 6:30 and 7 a.m. yesterday according to Nolan Espinda, warden at the OCCC. Her actual time behind bars this week was less than 65 hours.

Inmates receive a full day's credit for any hour during a calendar day that they are in custody, Espinda said. She received credit for the night she spent in jail when she was arrested.

Based on the time Rodriguez spent in police custody, she was eligible for release yesterday morning, he said.

Rodriguez's attorney, Steve Barta, declined comment yesterday.

On Dec. 21, Deputy Los Angeles City Attorney Tim Saito filed a motion to revoke Rodriguez's probation in Los Angeles Superior Court. Rodriguez or her attorney must go before a judge Wednesday in Los Angeles for a probation revocation hearing.

If the judge finds she violated her probation, she could face up to 18 months in jail.

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