Judge tough on drunk drivers is suspected of DUI

[movieguy]

Judge tough on drunk drivers is suspected of DUI

- Chuck Squatriglia, Chronicle Staff Writer

Thursday, June 23, 2005

A Sonoma County judge who handed down the stiffest possible sentence in two recent high-profile drunken driving cases will remain on the bench following her arrest for reportedly driving under the influence, officials said today.

The investigation of the charge against Superior Court Judge Elaine Rushing, who was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving following a single-vehicle crash late Tuesday night, has been turned over to the state Attorney General because Rushing is a sitting judge well known among those in Sonoma County's relatively small criminal justice community, authorities said.

A California Highway Patrol officer arrested Rushing, 57, at about 10:45 p.m. Tuesday after she reportedly ran off the road on Riebli Road in northern Santa Rosa, said Officer Christine Jacobs, CHP spokeswoman. No other vehicles were involved in the collision, and Rushing was not injured.

The officer administered a blood-alcohol test, Jacobs said. She would not disclose the result, citing CHP policy. The officer arrested Rushing and took her to the CHP station in Santa Rosa, where she was issued a citation charging her with misdemeanor driving under the influence. She was held for several hours before being released to her husband's custody, Jacobs and Rushig's attorney, Harry Allen, said.

"The judge has indicated that she wants this handled in the normal manner, and she will accept responsibility," Allen said.

Jacobs said it is not unusual for authorities to cite and release, rather than jail, DUI suspects. In Rushing's case, authorities determined that jailing her might pose a threat to her safety because she has presided over many criminal trials, Jacobs said.

"We determined that it would be better to make the arrest and deal with it at that level,"Jacobs said.

Rushing was the first woman named to the Sonoma County bench when Gov. Pete Wilson appointed her in 1992. She was elected last year to a third six-year term. She has spent most of her career on the bench presiding over criminal cases, but in April was transferred to the civil division under a normal rotation, Allen said.

Rushing presided last year over two of the Bay Area's highest-profile drunken-driving cases, both of which stemmed from accidents that killed bicyclists, and returned the longest sentences allowed by law.

In September, Rushing sentenced 69-year-old attorney Harvey Hereford to eight years and eight months in prison for the death of Alan Liu, a 31-year-old triathlete from Cupertino, in an Easter Sunday accident that also paralyzed Liu's riding companion. Hereford, who had a blood-alcohol level of 0.29 -- more than three times the legal limit -- had pleaded guilty to felonies that including manslaughter and driving under the influence.

In August, Rushing imposed a 14-year sentence on William Michael Albertson, 46, who was convicted of running down Daniel O'Reilly of Agua Caliente on April 19, 2004 as O'Reilly rode home on Mark West Springs Road. Prosecutors had charged Albertson with manslaughter and fleeing the scene of an accident.

E-mail Chuck Squatriglia at csquatriglia@sfchronicle.com

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