Morningside Rehab in Southern California. (Deano / Splash News)
Lindsay Lohan is on the loose.
“The “Mean Girls” star fooled an L.A Superior Court judge, a Santa Monica prosecutor and apparently her own lawyer, by pretending to check into a rehabilitation facility, but chickening out when she got there.
Prosecutor Terry White told The Post a couple hours after a court hearing — where Lohan’s lawyer Mark Heller said she was “ensconced in the bosom” of Morningside Recovery in Newport Beach — “I hear she’s on her way to LAX and getting on a flight back to New York.”
White could be back in court as early as Friday to ask Judge James Dabney to issue a warrant for Lohan’s immediate arrest.
The troubled actress was under court order to begin 90 days of lock-down rehab yesterday to settle charges that she lied to police after crashing into a truck on the Pacific Coast Highway last summer.
Lohan was a panicked mess in her last hours of freedom, and missed three scheduled commercial flights to Los Angeles before Heller was able to bundle her onto a private jet.
Sources say Lohan spent several hours frantically packing and repacking over a dozen suitcases with clothing, and arrived at the airport with so much luggage that some of the bags wouldn’t fit on the plane.
“I don’t know how she’s doing at the moment, but I trust that she’s doing well,” Heller told reporters as he rushed away from the courthouse, skipping his usual press conference.
The New York lawyer seemed fatigued from his marathon struggle to get Lohan packed, and on the plane, and into rehab at Morningside Recovery.
Unfortunately, Morningside is unlicensed and photogs snapped her shopping for gadgets at the very moment of her alleged check in.
It’s the latest freaky Thursday in Lohan’s ongoing legal drama. The “Mean Girls” actress had originally agreed to check in today at the Seafield Center in Westhampton, LI, for 90 days of treatment.
At the last second, though, she opted for Morningside Recovery, south of Los Angeles in Orange County, her lawyer Mark Heller revealed in court today.
“My client is ensconced in the bosom of that facility right now,” Heller said. “She’s there. In fact, she is going to be meeting later today with a psychiatrist and her therapy and treatment is undergoing immediate commencement.”
But as Heller made that iron-clad statement in an LA courtroom, Lohan was spotted shopping at Fry’s Electronics in Fountain Valley, Calif., according to TMZ.
About two hours later, Lohan reportedly pulled up to Morningside in an SUV but the vehicle left without the actress ever getting out.
It wasn’t immediately clear if Lohan or her team know Morningside is operating without a state license.
“The facility that Lindsay is now in, that’s not a licensed residential drug treatment center,” California Department of Alcohol and Drug Program deputy director Millicent Tidwell told The Post.
“They do not have a license to operate. It is illegal in the state of California to offer residential drug and alcohol treatment without a license.”
Calls to Morningside were referred to a New York PR agency, which made a parsed defense of the embattled treatment center.
Morningside is operating as a “sober living” house, monitoring clients for drugs and booze — but not offering treatment, thus adhering to the state’s revocation.
“These structured sober living homes have live-in house managers who are employed by Morningside to enforce house rules and conduct daily breathalyzer tests on each of its clients,” Morningside CEO Helen Beatificato said in a statement released by her New York PR handlers.
The treatment center facility’s struggles with state regulators were only briefly mentioned in LA court today.
Santa Monica Deputy City Attorney Terry White said he had newspaper clippings, citing problems at Morningside but he did not elaborate.
Still, LA Superior Court Judge James Dabney gave his tentative OK to Linz’s move to Morningside but agreed that prosecutors deserve to examine the Orange County treatment center.
“It appears … that this [facility, Morningside] would fall within the parameters [of the plea agreement],” said Dabney. “But I do believe the people are entitled to their due diligence.”
White had argued that Lohan should have gone to Seafield because prosecutors had thoroughly vetted and approved the Long Island treatment center.
“It [Seafield] met all the requirements we were looking for,” said White. “We did not approve this facility [Morningside]. We did not look into this facility. We don’t know anything about this facility.”
White fumed: “Now in five minutes I’m supposed to approve this? The LA City Attorney is not even here. This is unacceptable.”