Nicole Richie has been released on $15,000 bail after being arrested for driving under the influence in the early hours of Monday morning.



The socialite was spotted by two drivers then the California Highway Patrol in Burbank, California, driving the wrong way down a Los Angeles freeway on her way home from seeing new boyfriend Joel Madden. When officers approached the vehicle, Nicole’s SUV was parked in the carpool lane of the freeway facing in the right direction.

CHP officer Todd Workman revealed: “Someone could have been killed or seriously injured in a situation like this. She must have done a U-turn to change direction from eastbound to westbound, but she was at a complete stop in the carpool lane. Public safety was endangered.”

“She was alone in the vehicle. She said she was lost and had been trying to follow some friends, but there were no friends around,”

“She was disoriented, she wasn’t responsive to his questions and [the arresting officer] had to assist her out of the car and help walk her over to the passenger side of the vehicle and set her in there.”

The Highway Patrol officers then administered two field sobriety tests, which she failed, and then she reportedly admitted to having taken prescription painkiller Vicodin and having smoked marijuana during the evening.

Nicole was briefly jailed in nearby Glendale, California with her arrest record listing her as being 5′1 in height and weighing just 85lbs. An inside source at the station noted that she was “very cooperative and very humble” during her time there.

She has already reportedly hired attorney Howard Weitzman to represent her during the proceedings. She is due to appear in court later today.

Labels: Nicole Richie