Dina Lohan attorney: She's a 'role model defendant'

A plea deal could be reached in Dina Lohan's DWI case, a Nassau County judge said Tuesday, while Lohan's attorney called his client a "role model defendant" and vowed her treatment in the criminal justice system would be no different from anyone else despite her "celebrity status."

Lohan, the mother of actress Lindsay Lohan, appeared in First District Court in Hempstead for a hearing on charges she drove drunk on the Northern State Parkway last year. The case was adjourned Tuesday and Lohan is due back in court April 15 for what Judge Andrew Engle said was either a "plea deal or a motion schedule."

Her lawyer, Manhattan-based Mark Heller, told reporters it was "not unlikely that the district attorney and the court will facilitate a conclusion to this unfortunate process that Dina has had to go through."

A spokesman for Nassau District Attorney Kathleen Rice declined to comment.

Heller added that Lohan, 51, of Merrick, has attended twice-weekly counseling sessions and submitted to random drug testing. "She has very much impressed the assessors who work with her," Heller said. "I was told by the judge he is going to treat Dina Lohan in an equal, fair, evenhanded way." Not any differently, Heller said, "because of her celebrity status."

Lohanhas pleaded not guilty to driving while intoxicated and speeding charges. She had a blood alcohol level of 0.20 percent -- more than double the legal limit of 0.08 percent -- when she was arrested by State Police on Sept. 12, authorities said. Police said she was driving a white BMW at 77 mph in a 55-mph zone westbound near Route 135 in Oyster Bay Town.