Lindsay Lohan Battery Case Goes to D.A.

Sheriff turns report on Betty Ford incident over to Riverside County D.A., who will determine whether to press charges

By Natalie Finn Jan 06, 2011 11:40 PMTags
Lindsay LohanToby Canham/Getty Images

Lindsay Lohan may be living in Venice now, but life isn't a beach for her just yet.

Palm Desert police have turned the fruits of their battery investigation over the Riverside County District Attorney's Office, which will have the final say on whether or not Lohan should face charges for her alleged run-in with a staffer at the Betty Ford Center.

Lohan's one-time accuser has backed off, but the cops expressed confidence in their case. So what will the D.A. do?

"We have received most of the reports from the [Riverside County] Sheriff's Department on Lindsay Lohan's case," public information officer John Hall tells E! News. (The sheriff's office serves under contract to the Palm Desert Police Department.)

"We're still waiting for some supplemental reports to come back from law enforcement, but we've started reviewing what we have now. We're treating it like any other case. As of now there's no timeline as to how long it will take to review the reports until we have all of the evidence."

Sounds like business as usual at the D.A.'s office.

Since checking out of rehab this week, Lohan has made at least two trips to Equinox fitness center in West Hollywood, and she's leased a nice home in Venice for $7,100 a month—which sounds expensive but is actually a lot cheaper than a month at Betty Ford.

Lohan's attorney, meanwhile, is cleaning up the current mess, getting the word out that her client was not abusing drugs or alcohol while in treatment, despite reports that she may have been under the influence when she supposedly lashed out at chemical dependency technician Dawn Holland last month.

Holland was fired for breaching patient confidentiality rules by talking to TMZ about her scuffle with Lohan. She said at the time that Lohan refused to take a Breathalyzer and then jerked a phone out of her hand, causing an injury that required Holland to go on worker's compensation.

—Reporting by Katie Rhames