Kiefer Sutherland, as agent Jack Bauer on Fox TV's "24," has seen some pretty tough nemeses.
But when city prosecutors Friday charged the actor with two counts of drunk driving and accused him of violating parole in a prior DUI case, they thrust him into the courtroom of the judge who sent Paris Hilton to jail and, when the sheriff let her out early, sent her, sobbing, right back.
Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Michael T. Sauer, amid the Hilton circus, declared that he didn't "care to be DUI judge to the stars."
But when Sutherland is arraigned Oct. 16, his case may become another showdown between the judge and Sheriff Lee Baca. Like Hilton, Sutherland is accused of violating his DUI probation. He faces a potential 18 months in jail.
When Baca released Hilton because of an undisclosed medical reason after she served three days of her 45-day sentence, Sauer sent her back.
For years, judges have watched, frustrated, as the sheriff has slashed sentences to alleviate jail overcrowding
"The only strategy is really throw yourself on the mercy of the judge. This is not a judge who is going to go easy on a celebrity," Loyola law professor Laurie Levinson, a former prosecutor, said of Sutherland's case.
"His attorney could seek to remove the judge [from the case]. But if you shoot the king and miss, there will be consequences."
Sutherland, 40, was charged with driving a vehicle under the influence and having a blood alcohol level above the 0.08% state legal limit after his arrest early Tuesday in Hollywood.
City attorney's spokesman Nick Velasquez said prosecutors also were seeking to revoke Sutherland's probation from a 2004 arrest.
The actor faces up to a year in jail if convicted on the new charges and six months for any probation violation.
Because of the prior conviction, Velasquez said, if convicted, "Mr. Sutherland must serve a minimum of 96 hours in jail."
Sutherland's attorney, Blair Berk, would not comment.
The actor has been convicted of or pleaded no contest to alcohol-related charges three times locally since 1989.
Paul Burglin, a DUI defense attorney and one of the authors of the book "California Drunk Driving Law," said Sutherland may be far better off than Hilton was because the public perception of the heiress was that "she was flouting the orders of the court" by driving without a license.
