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LOS ANGELES - Celebrity heiress Paris Hilton pleaded innocent to drunk driving today after she was arrested in September in Hollywood while she hurrying to get a late-night burger.
Hilton did not attend the brief hearing in Los Angeles Superior Court at which her attorney, Shawn Chapman Holley, entered the not guilty plea.
The 25-year-old heir to the Hilton hotel fortune was not required to be in court because the charges, driving under the influence of alcohol and driving with a blood alcohol level over California's legal limit of .08, are misdemeanours.
Superior Court Judge Michael Sauer set a pre-trial hearing for Jan. 23 and said it would go to trial within a month of that date.
The socialite and reality TV star faces a maximum penalty of six months in jail and a US$1000 ($1465) fine if she is convicted, though first-time offenders are often given probation and required to attend alcohol counselling.
Hilton was stopped by police in Hollywood for driving erratically. She failed a sobriety test and was taken into custody. She later told KIIS-FM radio that she had been to a fundraising party after a long day shooting a music video and had just one drink.
"I had one margarita (and) was starving because I had not eaten all day. Maybe I was speeding a little bit and I got pulled over," Hilton said.
"I was just really hungry and I wanted to have an In-N-Out Burger," she said, referring to the popular, California-based fast-food chain.
Hilton's spokesman has said that her blood alcohol level registered "the absolute minimum amount of alcohol in your system that would justify an arrest."
- REUTERS
