Lindsay Lohan checks into Betty Ford, rehires attorney Shawn Holley

After skipping out on entering a Newport Beach rehabilitation facility and facing the prospect of arrest for violating her probation, Lindsay Lohan has rehired her former attorney, Shawn Holley, to keep her out of jail.

She checked in late Thursday at the Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage to begin a 90-day sentence in a reckless driving case, sources confirmed to The Times.

Holley, who represented Lohan for several years and managed to keep the actress out of jail for a jewelry theft, was part of the O.J. Simpson defense team and is among Southern California’s top criminal defense attorneys.

Lohan was on the verge of another arrest -- and jail -- if she didn’t check into rehab on Thursday.

Santa Monica Deputy City Atty. Terry White, who prosecuted Lohan, said he learned that the actress spent just a few minutes at the Newport Beach Morningside Recovery facility before leaving.

“Ms. Lohan is in violation of her probation, that much is clear,” he said.

White said he did not know Lohan’s whereabouts but that if she didn’t return, he would seek an arrest warrant.

Holley -- a legal fairy godmother of sorts for Lohan -- will try to keep the “Mean Girls” actress out of further trouble.

In court Thursday morning, Lohan’s attorney Mark Heller had told Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge James Dabney that his client had already begun her therapy at the Morningside Recovery facility after opting not to go to a Long Island, N.Y., recovery center.

But Lohan arrived at the Newport Beach facility after 11 a.m., and then left.

On Thursday, state officials said the Newport Beach facility was not licensed to provide residential drug or alcohol treatment; it is certified to operate as an outpatient clinic with sober living homes.

Heller told the judge the facility met all the conditions of Lohan’s plea agreement in a case in which she was also convicted of lying to police.

The “Mean Girls” star’s Porsche rear-ended a truck on the Pacific Coast Highway on June 8, but she denied she was driving. She entered a no contest plea in March and agreed to enter rehab, spend 18 months in psychotherapy and serve 30 days of community service.

Lohan spent time at Betty Ford before, in late 2010.

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richard.winton@latimes.com