DOCUMENT: Drunk, Crime

Driver Had .708 Alcohol Content

Woman narrowly misses topping U.S. intoxication record

Breathalyzer

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Cops: Driver Had .708 Blood Alcohol Content

DECEMBER 30--Meet Marguerite Engle.

The South Dakota woman recorded a mind-boggling .708 blood alcohol content after being arrested earlier this month when a state trooper found her passed out behind the wheel of a stolen truck.

But while Engle, 45, was nearly nine times over the state's .08 legal limit, she fell just short of the U.S intoxication record. That mark was set last year by an Oregon woman--also found comatose behind the wheel--who registered a .72 BAC. Engle's whopping BAC was measured by a Rapid City Police Department chemist who tested a blood sample drawn from Engle (a copy of a court affidavit sworn by chemist Jessica Lichty can be found here).

Engle is pictured at left in a mug shot taken earlier this year after she was arrested for assaulting a government employee and being intoxicated and disruptive. Engle was named in a two-count South Dakota Magistrate Court indictment charging her with driving under the influence and driving with a BAC beyond the .08 limit.

A traffic ticket issued to Engle notes that she "bonded out-hospitalized" after being collared in Sturgis just before noon on December 1. Engle is also facing charges in connection with her possession of the stolen vehicle. (5 pages)

Comments (2)

wow! i just held my personal breathalyzer up to her picture and it still registers .112 BAC! and this is February... good thing i have broadband, or my breathalyzer might still be digesting BAC data. if i only had dial-up, it would probably take until April 23rd. by then, her photograph MIGHT BAC all the way down to .093.
All handbag jokes aside, this is one VERY drunk bitch. In Australia, the limit is only 0.05, which isn't even slightly drunk, but anyone found to be over 0.20 is considered extremely drunk. This would be, like, some FOURTEEN times over the limit, or in the case of .08, some NINE times over the limit. In some parts of the world, you'd be declared clinically dead. People have actually died from less. That's not to say that she's lucky, in any way. Probably has a very high tolerance level, by the looks.