Lindsay Lohan Reportedly Checks Out of Rehab

Update, 5:30 p.m.: City News Service reports Lohan checked out of the Newport Beach Treatment Center on Thursday afternoon.

A judge agreed today to let Lindsay Lohan stay in a Newport Beach treatment center where she can smoke, after the actress made a last-minute decision not to enter a Long Island, N.Y., rehabilitation facility where lighting up is banned.

But by late afternoon, allegations surfaced that Lohan had checked out of the treatment center after only a few minutes, in apparent violation of her probation.

Lohan's New York-based attorney, Mark Heller, told Los Angeles Superior Court Judge James R. Dabney during a morning court hearing that Morningside Recovery in Newport Beach meets all the conditions of a plea bargain the actress struck with Santa Monica prosecutors stemming from a June 8 collision that occurred while she was heading for the set of "Liz & Dick" last summer.

The Porsche Lohan and her assistant were in rear-ended a dump truck on Pacific Coast Highway and, according to police, Lohan lied about not being the driver. She was on probation at the time for the theft of a necklace from a Venice boutique.

The judge said Morningside "appeared to comply" with the terms of Lohan's required 90-day rehabilitation treatment. But Terry White, a Santa Monica assistant city attorney, said he had three newspaper articles critical of the business.

Heller offered a letter from Morningside, showing that Lohan was in treatment there, and said he would be happy to have someone from the addiction treatment center talk to the judge directly.

A hearing was set for May 10 to ensure all parties were satisfied with Lohan's treatment at Morningside.

As the day wore on, however, questions began to arise about Lohan's compliance with the courts orders. The website TMZ.com posted photos of Lohan shopping at an electronics store at the same time her attorney was telling the judge his client was already at the rehabilitation center.

By late afternoon, White told the Los Angeles Times that Lohan had apparently checked out of the treatment center after spending only a few minutes there, meaning she "is in violation of her probation.''

Meanwhile, an official with the state Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs told The Times that Morningside's Newport Beach facility does not have a license to operate a 24-hour-a-day treatment program, which is what Lohan was ordered to attend. The facility is unlicensed and can only operate as a sober- living facility, the official said.   

A Morningside official responded, however, that the facility's programs are conducted by licensed clinicians at a 6,300-square-foot state-certified clinic.

Lohan, 26, was ordered to enroll in a 90-day in-patient program as part of her plea agreement stemming from the June crash. When the actress realized Seafield Center on Long Island wouldn't allow her to smoke, she made last- minute arrangements to go to Morningside, where she would be permitted to smoke.

In March, she pleaded no contest to misdemeanor charges of reckless driving and lying to police. She also was ordered to do 30 days of community labor and undergo 18 months of psychotherapy, which her attorney said in March she had already begun.

In the theft case, she admitted violating her probation and a 180-day jail sentence was put on hold.

CBS in New York reported that this will be Lohan's seventh stint in rehab since 2007.

Heller must show Dabney proof his client has completed treatment by July 31.