Michael Lohan - Legal Issues

Legal Issues

In 1990, Lohan was investigated for insider trading and convicted of criminal contempt of court. He was sentenced to three years in jail in Nassau County, and was released in 1993 on five years probation. During this time, his daughter Lindsay had started modeling for the Ford Models agency and was starring in commercials, and by the time of his release in 1993, she was at the pinnacle of her career.

In 1997, Lohan was arrested when he violated his probation after flying to Napa, California to visit his daughter Lindsay, who had been hospitalized for an asthma attack that occurred during filming of a movie. He subsequently served a year in prison.

After Lindsay became a movie star, tensions arose in the family, due to Lohan's belief that Lindsay's career should be managed by professionals, and not the members of Dina's family that have been characterized as "hangers-on". This conflict came to a head when Dina's youngest brother, Matt Sullivan, got into a fistfight outside Michael's Long Island home, during a May 23, 2004 first communion party for their son Dakota. Though he maintained that Sullivan was responsible for the fight, Lohan was charged with attempted assault and, while awaiting sentencing, was involved in a car accident that led to his being charged with driving under the influence of alcohol and aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle. While in prison, he took up singing and songwriting, as well as correspondence courses for Teen Challenge, a faith-based sobriety program. Michael and Dina Lohan separated again later that year. Lohan was later arrested on June 29 after allegedly leaving a Long Island hotel where he had rented several suites without paying his $3,800 bill, and faced assault charges in Manhattan for allegedly swearing at a sanitation worker and punching the worker in the face after the worker's truck blocked his car and punching him in the face. On January 19, 2009, Dina's spokesperson confirmed that she had filed for divorce.

Lohan was released from prison in March 2007 after serving a two-and-a-half-year sentence in the Collins Correctional Facility. He subsequently took up residence in a Teen Challenge center in West Babylon, New York, and underwent training to become a minister, though to be ordained requires his parole to end.

He subsequently worked as an actor and counselor with the Long Island Teen Challenge rehabilitation program. He has also been involved in various television proposals, including the Michael Lohan Reality Project, a 2007 series produced by Frozen Pictures, which followed his life, work and efforts to reconnect with his daughter and family.

On October 25, 2011, Lohan was arrested in a suspected domestic violence incident in Tampa, Florida, involving his on-again, off-again girlfriend, Kate Major. Lohan was released from custody on $5,000 bail and ordered to have no further contact with Major. Twelve hours later on October 27, 2011 he was again back in police custody, after contacting Major again by phone. Unbeknownst to Lohan, when he called Major a second time that evening, police were listening in on speaker phone. Police then went to Lohan's hotel to arrest him. When Lohan saw the police arrive, he attempted to escape by jumping out of his third-story room window. Upon jumping, Lohan fell into a tree and injured his foot. He was taken into custody and was being held to appear before a judge for violating the restraining order placed on him the day before. After being subsequently released from a Tampa hospital October 28, and taken to Falkenburg Road Jail, the wheelchair-bound Lohan was denied bail during an October 29 court appearance by Judge Denise Pomponio for violating a domestic violence injunction against him and his pretrial release order not to contact Major. Lohan and his attorney stated that he was merely returning a call by Major, but Major, who was present, stated that this was false.