Lindsay Lohan was just arriving in California to enter the rehab when she changed her mind about checking in to a treatment facility at the last possible moment.
Lindsay Lohan, 26, was scheduled to enter rehab on Thursday morning to begin her 90 days of court-ordered treatment.
The actress is reported to have never checked into Morningside Recovery in Newport Beach, and is said to have wanted to return to New York, but never caught a flight out.
Law enforcement sources now tell TMZ that prosecutors will seek an arrest warrant for Lindsay Lohan if she’s not back in rehab by sunrise.
Lindsay Lohan’s whereabouts are not currently known.
A source told Radar that Lindsay Lohan has apparently been saying for the past six hours that she is ”going to return to the rehab facility but she hasn’t yet”.
“She felt Morningside was not suitable for her,” another source told Us Weekly about Lindsay Lohan’s decision to leave.
“There were too many paparazzi everywhere and she didn’t feel safe. Nobody close to her is happy about this. They think she’s really not being smart.”
The star allegedly got “spooked” by the paparazzi and insisted on being taken back to the airport.
“She was saying, <<I’m not going to rehab. I’m not going to rehab. Take me back to the airport>>,” a source told The New York Daily News.
Lindsay Lohan’s decision to leave rehab came while her lawyer Mark Heller was in court telling a judge that she had entered the facility at 8.45 a.m.
Lindsay Lohan’s SUV arrived at the California facility but the vehicle left with the actress still inside, according to TMZ.
The website alleges that Lindsay Lohan was spotted at a Fry’s Electronics store in Fountain Valley at 9 a.m., while at the same time her lawyer was in court asserting she had already checked into rehab.
RadarOnline, however, reports that Lindsay Lohan did in fact walk through the doors of the facility, but left a few minutes after.
“She told people there that she didn’t need rehab,” a source told Radar.
“And then she left. Everyone was stunned.”
Lindsay Lohan’s father Michael also confirmed to Radar that his daughter never checked in.
“I have no other choice than to get this out there to help Lindsay,” he said.
Michael Lohan appears to have put Lindsay off spending her court ordered 90 days at Seaford.
“I told her it’s like a motel, and you share a room and have a plastic shower curtain. You can’t smoke, you can’t leave the property. She said, <<What?!>>” he told The New York Daily News.
Lindsay Lohan’s failure to check in to the facility is likely a violation of her recent plea deal. According to the newspaper, she was on her way to the airport to board a flight for New York.
“If there’s credible confirmation she’s heading back to New York, then I’m going to have to go in and ask the court to issue a warrant,” Santa Monica City Attorney Terry White told the paper.
“If that’s the case I have been told that she will be arrested in New York and her bail will be set at $100,000,” Michael Lohan told Radar.
Michael Lohan told the Daily News he spoke to Lindsay before the flight, pleading with her not to get on it.
“She said, <<Daddy, how can they arrest me?>> I got her just before she left,” her father said.
Adding to the confusion, Lindsay Lohan wasn’t even meant to be at Morningside.
Instead she was due to spend her stint at the New York based Seafield Centre after pleading no contest to charges of lying to police about driving during a car crash last June.
Lindsay Lohan switched facilities after apparently deciding she didn’t want to attend Seafield because it banned smoking.
At the exact time the troubled actress was said to be wandering around the electronics store, her lawyer Mark Heller was in court pleading to get the okay from the judge that Morningside would suffice.
Going to a different centre unapproved by the court technically broke her plea agreement, meaning her attorney was required to appear before a judge.
Mark Heller was attempting to convince Judge James R. Dabney to approve of the switch.
He argued that as Lindsay Lohan has already entered and is “ensconced” in the program, it could effect her recovery should she have to move facilities.
“She’s going to be meeting with a psychiatrist later today,” Mark Heller explained yesterday, reinforcing that the star is “commencing immediate treatment”.
The news comes amid claims that the Morningside centre in fact does not even have a license to offer residential treatment as it was revoked in May 2012.
According to TMZ, Morningside had their license suspended after they were found to be careless with prescription drugs and went beyond the constraints of the license.
The Deputy Director of Licensing and Certificates at the California Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs told the website: “Morningside cannot give any treatment, as the rehab centre is allegedly only allowed to provide a sober living facility.”
But Morningside Recovery released a statement on Thursday claiming the facility does in fact have a license to provide drug and alcohol treatment.
The facility’s CEO Mary Helen Beatificato said the 2011 revocation of Morningside’s license only hinders the centre’s ability to provide detox services to residents.
The judge however didn’t seem to have too many qualms about the switch to that particular facility, despite the fact that it was not on a list of six centres approved by the court.
“It does appear to comply,” Judge James R. Dabney said, adding that the prosecution had eight days to decide whether or not they will agree with the centre being approved.
“I don’t have any problems with Miss Lohan remaining in this program until the issue is resolved,” he said.
“If we decide the program does not meet the requirements of the plea agreement then she will have to move to a different program.”
The judge explained: “The issue is going to be whether or not we need to set a hearing because the people are complaining [the centre] does not fit the parameters.”
Mark Heller and Terry White of the prosecution will reconvene in front of the judge on May 10, at which point it will be determined whether or not they will set a date for a restitution hearing.
Lindsay Lohan’s lawyer said he has faith that Morningside will be approved, even though White claimed he had three separate news articles which showed the facility in a bad light.
“If [White] says he’s satisfied then I don’t think we have to come back,” Mark Heller said.
He added: “I’m 100% sure he will be satisfied.”
The attorney then claimed that he will “make sure [Lindsay Lohan] stays in therapy”, and had called in the COO of Morningside in the hope that she could win over Terry White.
The judge later stated that Lindsay Lohan will not have to appear in court as the case continues “as long as she is in compliance”.
In addition, none of Lindsay Lohan’s progress reports are to be released to the public aside from “proof of completion” at the end of her stay.
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