
TUCSON, Arizona (RnB NY magazine) - Singer
Diana Ross was sentenced to jail for driving under the influence. Now, an Arizona magistrate has ordered
Diana Ross to return to Tucson and serve her sentence for drunk driving, after learning she may have gotten special treatment elsewhere.
The singer, who pleaded no contest to DUI last month, had arranged to serve her sentence in Greenwich, Conn., where she lives. But during her stay, she left and returned multiple times, said City Court Magistrate T. Jay Cranshaw.
Greenwich Police Chief James Walters originally wrote Cranshaw to say that Ross, 59, had completed her sentence, spending 48 hours in custody over three days, including two overnight stays. Cranshaw asked for a full accounting of the time spent there, and it turns out Ross spent only 47 hours in police custody.
Arizona law requires DUI defendants to spend at least 24 consecutive hours in custody. Cranshaw said in a written order that the jail arrangement in Greenwich "clearly does not comply with Arizona law."
"To avoid questions of impropriety, the defendant is ordered to return to Tucson to serve 48 consecutive hours in the Pima County Jail," Cranshaw wrote in a March 4 order.
The original jail order sent to Greenwich didn't state that Ross had to serve 24 consecutive hours behind bars.
Ross, the former lead singer of The Supremes, has been on tour in Europe. She was arrested Dec. 30, 2002, after someone reported seeing someone driving the wrong way on Tucson's northeast side.
A hearing is scheduled April 1 to schedule her new jail stay.