It's a good thing Lindsay Lohan blew off Morningside Recovery for the Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage because the Newport Beach rehab may have closed with her in it!
Following an Orange County Superior Court judge's preliminary ruling that the Lido Village location violates city law, Newport Beach is now going back to court to force the closure of Morningside and six other rehabs.
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Residences, even rentals commonly used by substance abuse recovery programs, fall under state and federal housing regulations, which are less restrictive than those imposed on legal rehabs. Newport Beach has an ordinance prohibiting rehabs from being located in residential areas.
Judge Sheila Fell essentially ruled that the targeted residential rehabs are not operating like traditional homes because the length of stays are pre-set (generally 90 days), the residents are not friends or family but clients, and mail is not delivered directly to them.
The targeted rehabs can file challenges to Fell's preliminary findings, which come mere weeks after Lohan decided against checking into a court-approved New Jersey rehab, because it does not all smoking cigarettes, in favor of the Newport Beach location of Morningside, which also has a Costa Mesa facility.
But Lohan only stayed at Morningside for minutes before taking off for Betty Ford, which once sued her and was countersued by her over a previous stay.
Lindsay Lohan Ditches Newport Beach Rehab After 3 Minutes for Betty Ford Center
The game of musical rehab chairs led to threats of an arrest warrant and possible jail time before the matter was settled in court.
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OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.