LOS ANGELES (AFP) - Actress Michelle Rodriguez, former star of the hit television series "Lost," has begun a 180-day prison term for probation violation in a hit-and-run case, justice officials said Monday.
The 29-year-old checked into Los Angeles Century Regional Detention Facility on Sunday to start serving her term after being sentenced in October, officials said.
The jail at Lynwood is best known for housing celebrity socialite Paris Hilton during her stint behind bars earlier this year.
Rodriguez was handed her jail term after it emerged she had failed to carry out community service she had been ordered to undertake last year.
It was the latest chapter in a long-running saga of legal woes that has embroiled Rodriguez, who has also appeared in films such as "The Fast and the Furious," "S.W.A.T.," and "Resident Evil."
In June 2004, Rodriguez pleaded no contest to charges of hit-and-run and drunken driving relating to two incidents the previous year and was sentenced to two days in prison, ordered to perform community service and placed on three years probation.
However in 2005 she was hit with several speeding tickets while filming "Lost" in Hawaii and was also arrested for driving under the influence. She eventually pleaded guilty, received a fine and spent five days in jail.
Because the Hawaii offenses were a violation of her Los Angeles probation, she was then sentenced to 60 days in jail and ordered to undergo a 30-day alcohol rehabilitation program and 30 days of community service.
She was released from jail within 24 hours, however, because of over-crowding.
But Rodriguez found herself in hot water again in September after it emerged that she had not performed her community service and was not following an alcohol education program as stipulated.
Reports said Rodriguez had claimed to be carrying out community service in Los Angeles on September 25 when in fact she had been in New York.
