Lindsay Lohan Investigated for Battery at Betty Ford, Accuser Fired for Giving Interview to TMZ
LOS ANGELES (CBS/AP) Just when Lindsay Lohan seemed to be making progress with her treatment at a California rehabilitation facility, reports surfaced that the "Mean Girls" star was being investigated for battery on a female staff member at the facility.
When that staff member, Dawn Holland, gave an interview to TMZ about the incident, the Betty Ford Center in Palm Desert, Calif. fired her.
Riverside County sheriff's detectives said Tuesday that they are investigating Lohan for an alleged altercation with staffer Dawn Holland that occurred after 1 a.m. on Dec. 12.
Lohan has not been arrested or charged in the incident.
Although the agency would not say what prompted the fight, Holland told TMZ that Lohan along with two other girls in the facility had snuck out to go drinking.
When the girls returned, Holland ordered the 24-year-old actress to submit to a breathalyzer test which she refused. According to Holland, Lohan became belligerent, pushed her, and snatched a phone from her hand causing her to severely sprain her right arm.
Lohan's lawyer, Shawn Chapman Holley, declined to provide additional details regarding the incident but said that Lohan was the one who called police.
Betty Ford spokesman Russ Patrick said Holland was fired for identifying patients at the center in an interview and "disclosing a privileged document."
"When patients come to the center for treatment, they come to a safe place where their identity is protected, where anonymity is safeguarded," he said in an e-mail. "Their simple priority when in treatment is to learn how to live a life free of alcohol and other drugs."
Riverside County sheriff's Deputy Herlinda Valenzuela says it is up to prosecutors whether they will bring new charges against the troubled starlet.
Lohan has been receiving treatment at Betty Ford, about 120 miles east of Los Angeles, since late September.
Lohan was ordered to remain at the center till Jan. 3 and to stay out of trouble until Feb. 25 after she failed a court-mandated drug test. The judge also ordered her to submit to all drug and alcohol screenings or face up to six months in jail for violating her probation on a 3-year-old drunk driving case.