Susan McWilliams's drunk driving conviction affirmed by Lake County court

 Posted on December 25, 2013 in DUI

The drunk driving conviction of Susan M. McWilliams was recently affirmed by a Lake County court. McWilliams was arrested in November of 2009 when an officer reportedly saw her weaving within her lane and crossing white traffic lines. The officer also claimed that McWilliams almost caused an accident with the car next to her.

When the arresting officer approached Susan McWilliams' car, the officer had to slap the truck of the car and yell her to park her car because it was rolling backward. The officer said that McWilliams was busy trying to put the parking brake on despite the car being in neutral instead of park.

The arresting officer also said that McWilliams had bloodshot eyes and slurred speech. She also found it incredibly difficult to find and produce her driver's license for the officer.

Despite claiming that she hadn't been drinking, McWilliams allegedly smelled strongly of alcohol and failed multiple field sobriety tests.

During her appeal, McWilliams alleges that there were several errors made during her trial. The appeals court summarily rejected her appeal under the plain-error rule. The appeals court judges noted that plain error review generally involves cases in which the evidence was closely balanced. In this case, the court noted that the video evidence of the traffic stop clearly showed that McWilliams was intoxicated and any errors likely did not tip the scales of judges against her.