TAMPA, Fla. -- The arrests of Lindsay Lohan's father this week in Tampa has set off a media frenzy that local law enforcement is trying to keep in check.
Before his release from jail on Wednesday, bloggers, curious onlookers and reporters from local, national and international news outlets camped out in the parking lot waiting for a glimpse of Michael Lohan.
When Lohan walked out, a group of bloggers began taking photographs and videos with cell phones, jostling shoulder to shoulder with legitimate media members, said Hillsborough County sheriff's spokesman Larry McKinnon. A few sat on the curb, booted up laptops and blogged live from the scene.
McKinnon said he wanted to cool down another potential media frenzy when Lohan was arrested again on Thursday, the second time in three days.
Deputies patrolled the parking lot of Orient Road Jail before it was announced that Lohan was staying overnight at a hospital and was not being booked on Thursday.
McKinnon allowed Tampa Bay area news crews access to the jail's booking area, but asked national news outlets to get videos and photographs from local affiliates.
"We wanted to make sure legitimate media has access without risking the security of the jail," McKinnon said. "Sometimes it gets kind of crazy."
Since his first arrest on Tuesday, when Lohan was accused of beating his on-again, off-again girlfriend Kate Major, the sheriff's office and Tampa Police Department has been flooded with calls from not only local media, but Entertainment Tonight, celebrity gossip website TMZ and dozens of others, McKinnon said.
The media circus not only continued on Thursday but ramped up following Lohan's second arrest and how he tried to hide and flee from police, McKinnon said.
Lohan, 51, violated the terms of his jail release by calling Major hours after he posted $5,000 bail on Wednesday, police said. Major, a former reporter for The Star tabloid, told Tampa police Lohan called and threatened her.
When officers went to the Tahitian Inn on South Dale Mabry Highway at 1:05 a.m., Lohan tried to run away but fell 34 feet from the roof of the hotel and possibly broke his foot, according to an arrest report.
Col. Jim Previtera, the director of the county's jails, said he considers Lohan just another inmate. Previtera said he didn't even know who Michael Lohan was when he was given a heads up about the first arrest.
"I got a call at 4:50 a.m. and was told there was a growing media story," Previtera said. "I was told the person arrested was Michael Lohan and my first thought was, 'Where does he work?' "
Previtera thought "Michael Lohan" was one of his deputies. He said he was already preparing himself to talk to the media about a deputy's arrest before he was told the person in question was the father of a celebrity.
"We've had a lot of high-profile arrests, but it's shocking to me that this is getting so much attention," Previtera said.
Name recognition, the lurid details of the arrests and a celebrity's relative misbehaving is a potent mix that's guaranteed to draw attention and paparazzi to Tampa, said Roy Peter Clark, a senior scholar at Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg.
"It's the silly power of name recognition," said Clark, who writes about media ethics. "If a Lohan shows up or a Kardashian, all bets are off in terms of any sense of moderation."
Lindsay Lohan has "turned bad behavior into her brand," Clark said. "But I can't say that about her old man."
Lohan, the actress who became notorious for her partying and her own run-ins with the law in Los Angeles, has distanced herself from her father, according to her publicist.
"As per her policy, we never comment on anything to do with Michael Lohan," spokesman Steve Honig said. "Ever."
Lindsay Lohan is currently performing court-ordered community service in the L.A. County morgue for a probation violation. She also reportedly posed for Playboy this week.
Michael Lohan, who appeared on season 5 of "Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew," told police he moved to Tampa to get away from the publicity surrounding his celebrity daughter.
Copyright 2011 - Tampa Tribune, Fla.
