EVERETT— A judge sentenced a Seattle woman to three months in jail this week for striking and injuring a woman while driving drunk on Highway 99 in Lynnwood, according to court documents.
Last month, the defendant, 40, pleaded guilty to vehicular assault in the 2020 crash.
Under state sentencing guidelines, the defendant faced three to nine months in jail. Her social worker and substance use counselor advocated for the low end of that range, citing considerable personal growth in the years since the collision. After release, the woman will spend a year on probation, under the sentence handed down by Superior Court Judge Marybeth Dingledy.
On the day of the crash, the defendant acknowledged consuming three Four Loko drinks. Authorities asked if alcohol influenced her driving. The defendant responded, “Yes, I am normally a good driver when I drink but it did play a major factor in it.”
Around 3 p.m. Sept. 8, 2020, a witness saw the defendant driving on the sidewalk of the 21300 block of Highway 99. The witness backed into a nearby parking lot to avoid the Toyota 4-Runner when she noticed the defendant fighting with a man in the passenger seat.
The witness reported seeing the driver swerve in and out of lanes before going north on Highway 99 toward 212th Street SW.
A driver in a Hyundai Santa Fe was turning left onto southbound Highway 99 when the defendant drove through a red light in the right turn-only lane at about 54 mph, according to crash investigators. The 4-Runner collided with the Santa Fe’s driver’s side door.
The Santa Fe came to a stop in the intersection. The 4-Runner continued north before stopping in the oncoming lane.
Witnesses reported the defendant and her passenger exited the 4-Runner and got into another fight. The first officers to arrive witnessed the defendant strike the man’s head repeatedly with a piece of road debris before police handcuffed her. Reports indicate she struggled against several officers and tried to kick one in the groin.
Officers found several alcohol bottles in the defendant’s car and a can of alcohol in the front seat.
Paramedics took the injured woman to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, where she was diagnosed with numerous bone fractures to her left clavicle, left humerus, pelvis, two ribs, sternum and seven vertebrae. She was in the hospital for two weeks.
“She constantly reminds herself she is lucky not to be paralyzed or deceased,” deputy prosecutor Tobin Darrow wrote in court documents.
When the defendant learned the other driver was hospitalized, she cried. Breath tests three hours after the crash showed her blood-alcohol level to be 0.10, above the state’s legal limit for driving.
Her only criminal history was a misdemeanor for disorderly conduct from 2019.
The defendant has five children and has undergone counseling and substance use treatment to reconnect with them, according to court documents.
“I believe (the defendant) has shown the strong ability to change for the better,” her social worker wrote in a letter to the court. “(She) knows that she not only needs to work to improve for herself but also her children.”
Connor Zamora: 425-339-3037; connor.zamora@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @cgzamora02.
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