Sometimes Darwin makes it easy

A 64-year-old Fairbanks woman arrested Friday on her third drunken-driving charge in nine days pleaded innocent in state court Saturday.

Marcia Uhler, owner of Caribou Loan Co., was arraigned at 1:30 p.m., which was held over from Friday because she was too intoxicated. Uhler's presence in court was via video from the Fairbanks Correctional Center.

Superior Court Judge Randy Olsen set her bail at $150,000, cash only, an unusually high bail for an accused drunken driver, and $100,000 more than the prosecutor requested.

Uhler said she did not have the money to pay bail. Her attorney said he plans to seek her release to an alcohol-treatment program.

"She obviously needs help," said Mike MacDonald of MacDonald & Levengood, Uhler's longtime legal counsel for her business.

Olsen also required Uhler to have electronic alcohol monitoring and a third-party custodian to be released from jail.  

"We don't have any objections to that at this time," MacDonald said. "But she may as well be in custody in an in-treatment program."

MacDonald said Uhler has been under stress lately because of her husband's health.

Uhler was first arrested on a charge of driving under the influence of alcohol on July 7 after a police officer went to her business to investigate a report of a stolen gun. The officer watched her pull into the parking lot and open the store. When he went inside to speak with her, she slurred her speech, he said.

She reportedly registered a 0.10 on a chemical breath test. The legal limit is 0.08.

Uhler's second arrest came Thursday after she was pulled over shortly after retrieving her Cadillac DeVille from the city impound lot. She reportedly registered a 0.24 on a chemical breath test.

Less than a day after her release from jail from that arrest, someone reported an erratic driver on Second Avenue. The driver turned out to be Uhler, who registered a 0.30 on a chemical breath test, according to Fairbanks police.

Uhler also has a previous DUI conviction from 2004.

All three drunken driving charges are misdemeanors, though authorities said two could become felonies if one is adjudicated and becomes a conviction.

Uhler's lawyer called that into question, saying she had only one DUI conviction on her record at the time of her three drunken driving arrests.

Under state law, a person is convicted of felony drunken driving if they have been convicted of drunken driving twice since Jan. 1, 1996. A felony conviction carries a minimum of a $10,000 fine and 120 days in jail for the first felony charge and 240 days in jail for the second felony charge. A person convicted of felony drunken driving loses their driver's license permanently and must forfeit their vehicle.

"That's the least of her problems," MacDonald said.

She sure is doing a lot to help her husband out. I'm having a hard time finding any sympathy for her...an even harder time than I normally do for drunk drivers.

We arrested the same lady for DUI twice in less than 24 hours......  Contacted her once in between the DUI stops but she wasn't DUI - yet.

Brian

 I remember arresting a guy for DUI 2 times in 1 night, It was in 1986 and people who who arrested for DUI were released O.R. after testing and were given citations. We just told them to go ahead and call a friend, or a cab and send them home. Many people would take the cab/ride straight to their vehicles (even though they were verbally told not to upon leaving the PD).

 The guy who I had arrested promptly took a cab to his car and then drove a block and got into an accident...still in our city. Still intoxicated.

  I guess it bacame a Judges order in 1987-88 that all DUI arrests were to be taken to Palm Beach County Jail and were not released until at least 8 hours after time of arrest on the road.


   Three  DUI arrests in Nine days? This person definitely has a "funny little drinking problem".

    You think????

Quoted: She reportedly registered a 0.10 on a chemical breath test. The legal limit is 0.08. She reportedly registered a 0.24 on a chemical breath test. who registered a 0.30 on a chemical breath test, according to Fairbanks police.

I'll give her this much; she's getting consistently better at it..

ETA: Bitch should be locked up and have her DL permanently revoked.....

The f'ed up thing is this

In Alaska 3 DUI convictions in 10 years = felony

She may get off because she hadn't been convicted yet.  She had 1 past DWI a couple of years prior

I guess it bacame a Judges order in 1987-88 that all DUI arrests were to be taken to Palm Beach County Jail and were not released until at least 8 hours after time of arrest on the road.

In our court distrcit any DWI is a no bail offense.  You must wait and see the judge for arraingments at 1:30 the next day.

Worst I ever had was a got the father DUI and around 3 PM, released him to his two sons. At about 10PM I stopped a m/c and arrested the one son for DUI and took the other one to the barrack to wait for the mother to come get them both.  Mothe picks them both up and I follow her and see 2nd. drunk son get on M/C and drive off. He flees when I try to stop him and he hits a tree and is taken to ER for major injuries and DUI testing.  Never did get the mother, guess she is the sober one....hard to be I guess dealing with that house load of drunks........