BEIJING, Jan. 11 -- Celebrity heiress Paris Hilton pleaded innocent to drunk driving on Tuesday after she was arrested in September in Hollywood while she was hurrying to get a late-night burger.

    Hilton did not attend the brief hearing in Los Angeles Superior Court at which her attorney, Shawn Chapman Holley, entered the not guilty plea.

    The 25-year-old heir to the Hilton hotel fortune was not required to be in court because the charges, driving under the influence of alcohol and driving with a blood alcohol level over California's legal limit of .08, are misdemeanors.

    Superior Court Judge Michael Sauer set a pretrial hearing for Jan. 23 and said it would go to trial within a month of that date.

    The socialite and reality TV star faces a maximum penalty of six months in jail and a 1,000 U.S. dollars fine if she is convicted, though first-time offenders are often given probation and required to attend alcohol counseling.

    Hilton was stopped by police in Hollywood for driving erratically. She failed a sobriety test and was taken into custody. She later told KIIS-FM radio that she had been to a fund-raising party after a long day shooting a music video and had just one drink.

    "I had one margarita (and) was starving because I had not eaten all day. Maybe I was speeding a little bit and I got pulled over," Hilton said.

    "I was just really hungry and I wanted to have an In-N-Out Burger," she said, referring to the popular, California-based fast-food chain.

    Hilton's spokesman has said that her blood alcohol level registered "the absolute minimum amount of alcohol in your system that would justify an arrest."

    (Source: chiandailly.com.cn/Agency)

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