Judge Won't Rule on Ross Before Monday

04/02/2004 4:39 PM, AP


A city magistrate won't decide before Monday whether pop diva Diana Ross has fulfilled a jail sentence for a DUI conviction or must return to Tucson to do so.

Lawyers for Ross and a prosecutor told Tucson City Court Magistrate T. Jay Cranshaw on Thursday that Ross should be credited with serving her full 48-hour sentence although she was released prematurely.

She pleaded no contest in February to a drunken driving charge in Tucson and was to serve 24 hours of the sentence consecutively.

But officials at the Greenwich, Conn., jail where she was serving the sentence released her 90 minutes early.

The lawyers said court rulings support crediting Ross with having served the full sentence. Cranshaw took the matter under advisement and his office said Friday he would not rule before next week.