MADD Would Wait Before Hiring Paris Hilton

Paris Hilton’s expressed desire to work on behalf of Mothers Against Drunk Driving got a less-than-enthusiastic response Monday from the organization. “We have reservations about her behavior thus far,” MADD spokeswoman Misty Moyse said. “Typically, we’ve only worked with high-profile figures if there’s true responsibility for those actions.”MADD’s “primary concern” about Hilton is “the kind of messages being sent to the public and young girls nationwide about the seriousness of drunk driving and drinking by those under 21,” the bulk of Hilton’s fan base, Moyse said.

In her first television interview since being freed from the Century Regional Detention Facility Tuesday, Hilton said on “Larry King Live” Wednesday said she would love to work with MADD and repeated her desire to help female inmates and people with breast cancer and multiple sclerosis.

Moyse said she was not aware of any contact between her organization and representatives for the hotel heiress-entertainer-entrepreneur.

“We haven’t heard from them. We haven’t reached out to them,” Moyse said. “Typically, we wait until the case is closed. There’s just a lot of parameters we have to look at at our end, regarding the person taking responsibility and other things.”

There was no immediate response to a telephone message and e-mail sent to Hilton’s publicist, Elliot Mintz, seeking comment.

Hilton was jailed for 23 days for violating probation in an alcohol-related reckless driving case by driving on a suspended license. She has repeatedly cited a miscommunication with her lawyer for driving on the suspended license.

When asked by King if she got “a raw deal,” Hilton said she did, later saying “the crime did not fit the … punishment.”

“I don’t feel like I deserved to go to jail for it,” Hilton said.

Hilton also told King she will never drink and drive again and had only one drink before her arrest that led to her no contest plea to the reckless driving charge.

Experts have said Hilton must have had more than one drink to have a blood-alcohol level of .08, the minimum for a drunken driving charge.

MADD issued a statement June 7, the day Sheriff Lee Baca ordered Hilton transferred from jail to house arrest, calling for alcohol ignition interlock systems be placed on her vehicles.

The system requires the driver to blow into a small handheld alcohol sensor unit attached to a vehicle’s dashboard. The car cannot be started if the blood alcohol level is above a preset level, usually .02 to .04

A variation in California law has kept that from happening, Moyse said.

“We do believe she should still be on an interlock given the driving on a suspended license more than once,” Moyse said.

knbc.com