Jail Time for Zsa Zsa? All Agree That It’s Unlikely

Actor Rob Lowe lectured to inmates in a Dayton, Ohio, detention center. O.J. Simpson donated money to a program for battered women. Ryan O’Neal’s son Griffin helped clean up graffiti around Los Angeles.

For celebrity misdemeanants, and for a lot of others, doing “community service” beats hard time in county jail, where the accommodations are on the small side and the meals are worse.

It’s a probability that Zsa Zsa Gabor now must face. Convicted Friday of slapping a Beverly Hills police officer, driving without a license and possessing an open flask in her Rolls-Royce, the Hungarian-born actress will be sentenced Oct. 17 in Beverly Hills Municipal Court.

Jail Not Likely

With jail time only a remote possibility for the sexagenarian actress, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Elden Fox, what’s most likely to happen is that Gabor will get another kind of punishment. After all, community service was good enough for Lowe, accused of making a pornographic movie with a teen-ager; for Simpson, who pleaded no contest to beating his wife; and for Griffin, who faced drunk driving charges.

“A very popular thing in lieu of jail time is the Caltrans detail--picking up litter on the roadway and such,” Fox said. Others convicted of misdemeanors have sandblasted graffiti-defaced boulders on county parkland or picked up candy wrappers in the Angeles National Forest.

“Of course, that kind of duty is usually reserved for someone whom I would describe as more physically fit,” said Fox, who crossed swords frequently with the flamboyant Hungarian-born actress during her three-week trial.

More likely, he said, is service at a court-approved social service agency, such as the Red Cross or Meals-On-Wheels, which delivers meals to the housebound elderly.

But it’s up to Judge Charles G. Rubin, who will impose the sentence after listening to arguments from Fox and from defense attorney William Graysen.

Though the convictions carry maximum penalties of 18 months in jail and about $3,000 in fines, incarceration in the county’s 2,000-inmate Sybil Brand Institute may not fit Gabor’s crimes, both prosecutor and defense attorney said.

“The injuries to the officer were extremely slight,” said Graysen.

Because of Gabor’s age--reportedly 66, but older by some accounts--jail may not be appropriate, Fox conceded. “I was asked, ‘If a normal 70-year-old woman slapped a policeman, was it likely that she’d go to jail?’ ” said Fox, referring to an earlier conversation. “I said, ‘Probably not.’ ”

Hit Bobby in London

But Fox is not quite ready to concede that Gabor is “normal.” She has a previous record, from an incident in London in which she struck a British bobby with her pocketbook, Fox said. And she’s unrepentant, he said. “What bothers me about Zsa Zsa Gabor is that there’s nothing about the verdict that has really had any effect on her attitude,” he said. “Her position will always be that this is a miscarriage of justice and I’m Zsa Zsa Gabor and I can do anything I want.”

Neither Gabor nor her attorney could be reached for comment Saturday.

Rubin can set a required number of hours of community service or direct her to a specific program, said Fox. “The individual can just go to an authorized agency--and a lot of times the clerk’s office in the court has a list of those that qualify--and just sign up,” he said. “He can also order her to work, say, at the Midnight Mission serving meals for 300 hours.”

Fox said that he would probably request restitution for both the Beverly Hills Police Department and for the court, whose expenses in the trial were estimated at $30,000--”something to get her attention,” he said.

But he said he was concerned that paying a fine not be the sole punishment. “I fear the public reaction if, after conviction, people say, ‘Look, all she had to do was give a check for $2,000 and she’s on her way,’ ” Fox said. “What about the rest of us? What if we’re convicted of the same crimes?”