Pickled: .708 percent

Woman's blood alcohol content topples state records

Excerpt:

A Sturgis woman had a blood-alcohol level of .708 percent, possibly a state record, when she was found earlier this month behind the wheel of a stolen vehicle parked on Interstate 90, according to Meade County State’s Attorney Jesse Sondreal.

A South Dakota Highway Patrol trooper discovered Marguerite Engle, 45, on Dec. 1 passed out behind the wheel of a delivery truck reported stolen in Rapid City.

Her blood-alcohol level was almost nine times South Dakota’s legal limit of .08 percent.

Checks with local and state labs where blood-alcohol levels are tested suggest Engle’s reading may be the highest ever recorded in South Dakota, Sondreal said.

Sondreal said a state chemist recalled a sample that tested .53, but nothing higher, in his more than 30 years on the job.

Dr. Robert Looyenga, who recently retired from the Rapid City Police Department’s forensic laboratory, told Sondreal that the highest blood-alcohol sample he tested measured .56 percent.

Sondreal’s research indicates that a blood-alcohol level of .40 is considered a lethal dose for about 50 percent of the population.

“Engle’s was almost double that,” Sondreal said.

Comment: Minnesota connection: she "recently moving here from Minnesota"

Vodka: "a common choice of later-stage alcoholics because they think it is easier to hide"

A ‘Perfect Mother,’ a Vodka Bottle and 8 Lives Lost

Excerpt:

Consider a 2004 federal Department of Transportation manual on detecting drunken drivers: Citing a Fort Lauderdale, Fla., study, the manual suggests that for every person the police actually arrest for drunken driving, the intoxication of three other drivers who are stopped goes undetected because officers did not suspect they were drunk.

Comment: Scary statistic

Drunkenness leads to "humiliation afterward"

Comment: I don't post this to be sensational, but because of: 1.) The Minneapolis connection (where I live and where this is in the news) and 2.) because it illustrates how stupid drunkenness can make a person.

Hawk fan says bathroom sex scandal "ruined my life"

Excerpt:

Feldman, who describes herself as a light drinker, drank wine at the home of family friends before the football game.

She said she doesn’t remember how much she drank, but the party’s hosts refilled her glass each time it was low “so I’m sure I drank a lot.”

Feldman said her husband later told her he’d tried to talk her out of the game because she was intoxicated.

“He said I didn’t realize it was that bad,” she said.

Feldman said her husband accompanied her to the game, but their friends stayed home.

She said she remembers sitting in the stands one moment and the next “being slammed around by a cop and screaming.”

“Apparently I was panicked and very uncooperative,” she said.

Feldman said she “ran away” from her husband the Metrodome after the incident.

Comment: Apparently her husband "has been supportive". Sad story and definitely not funny.

Updated: Woman in Metrodome sex incident says she was victim

While police say a high-profile indecent conduct case in the Minneapolis Metrodome Saturday is closed, a Carroll woman involved in it told the Daily Times Herald she believes she was a victim of foul play rather than a willing collaborator.

Lois K. Feldman, 38, of Carroll, and Ross M. Walsh, 26, of Linden, were ticketed for indecent conduct after they were reportedly caught engaging in sexual activity in a Metrodome men's restroom handicapped stall during the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers game with the Iowa Hawkeyes. More than a dozen people in the restroom were cheering Feldman and Walsh by the time authorities arrived, a University of Minnesota Police report says.

Feldman acknowledged drinking heavily before the game and says she doesn't remember being in the bathroom.

"I would never ever do that," Feldman said. "My kids are my life. I go to church every Sunday."

Information obtained in police reports and during an interview with University of Minnesota Police Chief Greg Hestness revealed no suggestion or evidence that the incident was anything but consensual on the part of both Walsh and Feldman.

But Feldman tells the Daily Times Herald she may have been drugged or otherwise victimized.

"Everybody thinks something got put in my drink," Feldman said.

Bush: "addiction competes for your affection"

Bush: Faith Helped Him Beat Drinking

Excerpt:

President Bush called his one-time struggle with alcohol an "addiction"—a blunt characterization of his life before he relied on his faith to help turn it around.
"Addiction is hard to overcome," Bush said, speaking Tuesday at a faith-based center that helps former prisoners get job training and other help.

"As you might remember, I drank too much at one time in my life," the president said. "I understand faith-based programs. I understand that sometimes you can find the inspiration from a higher power to solve an addiction problem."

Increasingly, Bush has reflected in candid terms about his days of drinking. Last month, he told some young recovering addicts to stick with their fight against drugs and cited his own experiences with alcohol years ago. He said at that time that "addiction competes for your affection ... you fall in love with alcohol."


Comment: Candid, interesting, encouraging.