Lindsay Lohan arrest: Surveillance video supports chef’s claim he was hit-run victim

Lindsay Lohan exits the Bowery Hotel with an unidentified child in her arms on Thursday.
Security videotape released Thursday by cops bolsters a chef’s claim that he was Lindsay Lohan’s hit-and-run victim, but also suggests his account of his injuries is exaggerated.

The latest twist in the early Wednesday incident in Chelsea came as the troubled Hollywood actress’ mother said there is only so much she can do.

“I’m certainly not making excuses for Lindsay’s behavior,” Dina Lohan told the Daily News. “But she’s a 26-year-old woman.”

But she said if she had to do it all again, she might not let her daughter be a child star.

Speaking of children, Lindsay Lohan was spotted Thursday evening leaving the Bowery Hotel, carrying an unidentified child in her arms. She wore a black trench coat over a white dress and was accompanied by her artist pal Domingo Zapata, who also carried a young child.

She strolled into a waiting SUV without addressing the media at about 7 p.m.

RELATED: LOHAN ARRESTED IN NEW YORK

MOLLOY: WATCHING LILO IS LIKE WATCHING HORROR MOVIE

Grainy and blurry as a Lohan night out, the black-and-white video released by the NYPD shows a jet-black Porsche Cayenne zooming into the entrance ramp to a Chelsea hotspot, clipping Jose Rodriguez, 34, and scattering a half-dozen clubgoers out front.


DCPI

Frame grabs from video showing Lindsey Lohan accident where she allegedly hit pedestrian while pulling out of parking garage on September 19, 2012.

The car, which cops say was driven by Lohan, continued down the ramp between the Maritime and Dream Hotels and leading to the underground Electric Room nightclub.

Rodriguez told the Daily News he “fell to the side” and was “was in so much pain.”

But the video doesn’t show him falling after being struck. It shows him immediately twirling around and following the car down the ramp.

A police source said Lohan blinked her headlights at people blocking the ramp before proceeding forward. But that’s not clear on the video.

It’s also impossible to see if Rodriguez is grimacing in pain because police intentionally blurred out all the faces in the footage.

The encounter just after midnight Wednesday prompted cops to arrest Lohan. She was issued a desk summons for leaving the scene of an accident and released.

Rodriguez said he followed the car and confronted the occupants. He insisted the “Mean Girls” star was “slurring” and “smelled of alcohol.” But by the time cops caught up to her, two hours after the accident, they found no indication that she was intoxicated.

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said officers did not give Lohan a Breathalyzer and they don’t think she was impaired.

Rodriguez insisted Lohan didn’t seem to care if he was injured.

He said a male companion put Lohan in the back seat of the sports car, and they drove off “like it didn’t matter.”


KRISTINA BUMPHREY/AP

Meanwhile, Dina Lohan expressed regrets about allowing her daughter to become a child star.

Knowing what she knows now about the many child actors who develop substance problems later in life, she said she has had second thoughts about putting Lindsay into 60 commercials and “Parent Trap” before she even turned 11.

"I was born into the business," Dina told the Daily News. "My mother was an entertainer. It was natural. But yes, in the next life, I might not do it."

Lindsay, who is on probation, has been in rehab five times, yet Dina allowed drinks to be served at her 50th birthday party Saturday at Mio Posto in Hicksville, L.I., where Lindsay reportedly downed vodka cocktails.

"It was a family party, given for me by my friend who's a lawyer," Dina told The News. "My 80-year-old mother was there, and she's Italian-American, and to be able to have a glass of red wine there for her is normal for our family. Some people who want to quit drinking do it cold turkey and some do it gradually — you want to keep a balance. I don't know what's a right way or a wrong way."

But after numerous DUI arrests, isn't Dina worried about Lindsay?

"I worry about all four of my children," Lohan said. "I talk to each of them every day and I reprimand them all the time."

But she admitted to having special worries about her eldest, who has spent much of her $30 million fortune and is struggling to get top roles again in Hollywood.

"I worry about her being set up," Dina said ruefully.

Mama Lohan says that, at 50, she doesn't try to dress or wear her hair like lookalike daughter Lindsay. "I was born blonde. God gave me what I look like. I can't change that," she surmised. And she says that she no longer goes mother-daughter clubhopping: "I don't party with Lindsay. In the early years, I would go with her to clubs, because I wanted to see who the enablers were."