Conrad Hilton's odd courtroom behavior delays criminal arraignment
Hotel heir Conrad Hilton, younger brother of Paris Hilton, has been released on bail after his arrest on grand theft auto and violating a restraining order, but his strange behavior in court helped send him to a psychiatric hospital.
Hilton, 23, was supposed to be arraigned on Wednesday after he was arrested in the Hollywood Hills on May 6 for allegedly violating an ex-girlfriend's restraining order and stealing her father's Bentley. He had been in the Los Angeles County jail since his arrest.
But when he was brought into court on Wednesday, clad in a jail outfit designed to prevent self-harm, Hilton seemed agitated and disturbed, according to an Associated Press video from the courtroom camera pool in Los Angeles Superior Court.
His attorney, celebrity lawyer Robert Shapiro, tried to block the camera's view of his client and the microphone did not pick up everything Hilton said, but reporters in the courtroom heard several outbursts from him, including a homophobic slur, according to TMZ and E! Online. Hilton also winked at the court camera.
Shapiro declined to comment in an email to Paste BN on Thursday.
The judge is heard telling Hilton his arraignment is postponed until June 29 and he will be released on $90,000 bail to the custody his father, Rick Hilton, who was in the courtroom with his wife, Kathy, and another son, Barron.
But Conrad Hilton was directed to check into a psychiatric clinic as a condition of his release, on the video. If he leaves the clinic before his June 29 court date, he'd be taken back into custody, the judge is heard warning him. TMZ and E! Online reported Hilton was going to The Menninger Clinic in Houston.
When Hilton is asked if he understands what's happening to him, he responded, "Yes, your honor...I'm sorry for disrespecting this entire courtroom and this state and I didn't have sex with hookers," according to the video.
This is the latest incident in the troubled socialite's history of run-ins with the law. In 2015, he agreed to plead guilty to assaulting flight attendants on a July 2014 flight from London to Los Angeles during which authorities say he called other passengers "peasants" and threatened to kill crew members. He was sentenced to 750 hours of community services and three years of probation.
Later in 2015, Hilton turned himself into police in Riverside County, Calif., after he allegedly led police on a high-speed chase before crashing near Palm Springs in August 2014. Hilton suffered serious injuries and firefighters had to extract him from his BMW.