Former soap opera star Brenda Dickson was ordered back to jail yesterday for disrupting proceedings and refusing to comply with a court order that she leave a Los Angeles apartment that's at the center of a divorce.

Part-time Family Court District Judge Darryl Choy found Dickson in contempt of court and ordered Dickson to serve 10 days in jail for what he called reckless, disruptive behavior that included uttering an obscenity.

The tumultuous hearing included Dickson interrupting the proceedings numerous times with remarks as she sat at the counsel table.

Choy also found her in contempt for not leaving the apartment, as she promised she would, so that it could be sold as part of the divorce from her former husband, Honolulu attorney Jan Weinberg. The judge ordered her to remain in jail until she complies with the order.

As Choy was issuing his ruling, Dickson shouted that she was upset.

"I'm having a nervous breakdown because of you," she yelled at the judge.

Dickson, 58, who played Jill Abbott on "The Young and the Restless" series in the 1970s and 1980s, previously spent 16 days at the O'ahu Community Correctional Center for failing to leave the apartment. She was released in February after she promised to abide by the order.

She went to Los Angeles after the February hearing but returned for yesterday's hearing on a request for a new divorce trial to set aside the ruling that ordered the sale of the apartment. Choy denied the request.

On the contempt issue, Weinberg's attorney, Charles Kleintop, told the judge yesterday Dickson did "absolutely" nothing to comply with the order.

Dickson maintains she does not have the money to move out of the apartment and would be homeless.

Choy scheduled another hearing in the case for April 19 to determine if Dickson will comply with the order.

Kleintop said Choy was justified in holding Dickson in contempt for her actions.

"I have never seen any litigant as contemptuous as what we just witnessed today," he said.

Dickson's lawyer, Cheryl Brawley, said they plan to "regroup" to decide what to do next, but she wasn't sure what that would be.

She said she did not know if her client would ever purge herself of the contempt and comply with the order to leave the apartment.

Reach Ken Kobayashi at kkobayashi@honoluluadvertiser.com.