When Paris Hilton was booked into a Las Vegas jail for possession of cocaine, she was rushed through the booking process in order to get her in and out as quickly as possible, a jail official acknowledges.
In fact, Hilton's three-hour stay at the Clark County Detention Center was five to 21 hours shorter than that of someone else booked for the same offense.
Preferential treatment? Not necessarily. Was she treated differently from the average inmate because of her celebrity? Absolutely.
"Yeah, she was treated differently so I don't have a disruption of my process here at the county jail," Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Deputy Chief Jim Dixon, who runs the detention center, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. "When you bring somebody in like that, everybody comes over and tries to look at them. I'd have officers attempting to keep inmates away from her. I'd have disruptions."
Following her Aug. 27 arrest, Hilton's booking process was expedited in order to get her into a separate room from other inmates and eligible to release.
"She was moved along out of the general area and put in isolation where nobody can actually get to her," Dixon said, claiming that Hilton couldn't be left alone with uncuffed inmates. "That wouldn't be fair to her. It wouldn't be fair to my officers. It wouldn't be fair to the other inmates ... To put Paris Hilton in an open dorm area with male inmates and female inmates would shut down my process."
Hilton, 29, was moved to several rooms during the process of her stay, including an isolation room – also known as a "drunk tank" – and even a sergeant's office.
The heiress was released on her own recognizance because she had no outstanding warrants and was determined not to be a flight risk. Also, prior to the Vegas incident, she had not been arrested for drug use in the United States – though she skirted drug accusations overseas in July.
An arraignment is set for Oct. 27 on the possession of cocaine charge.
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