Thread: AL: Girl, 11, faces DUI charge after chase

Girl, 11, faces DUI charge after chase

Friday, July 06, 2007
By RYAN DEZEMBER

Staff Reporter
Orange Beach police arrested an 11-year-old girl Tuesday night and charged her with driving under the influence of alcohol after a high-speed chase that ended when the child flipped the Chevrolet Monte Carlo she was driving.

Assistant Police Chief Greg Duck said a patrol officer noticed the Monte Carlo speeding west along Alabama 182 near the Phoenix V Condominium tower Tuesday night at about 10:30. When the officer flicked on his lights and tried to pull the car over, it sped up.

According to Duck: The Monte Carlo exceeded speeds of 100 mph in the ensuing chase, which flew west along the beach highway through Orange Beach, past Gulf State Park and into Gulf Shores -- a distance of about 8 miles. The Monte Carlo eventually sideswiped another vehicle and then flipped over near the easternmost condo towers of Gulf Shores.

The patrol officer, unaware of who the Monte Carlo's driver might be, approached the wrecked car cautiously, with gun drawn, Duck said.

"You go up there thinking it's a felon you're dealing with," he said.

But what the officer found was hardly whom he expected. Rather, he discovered a typical-looking 11-year-old, a fifth- or sixth-grader, perhaps, apparently drunk and slightly injured.

"You can see his reaction on the video," Duck said of his patrol officer. "He was expecting someone else."

Police did not release the defendant's name because of her age, but she is from Perdido Key, Fla., an unincorporated part of the Panhandle that abuts Orange Beach. Duck said the case has been turned over to the Baldwin County Juvenile Court for prosecution.

While the legal blood-alcohol content for adults is .08 grams per 100 milliliters of blood, the limit for anyone under 21 is .02. Without disclosing her blood-alcohol content, Duck said the 11-year-old had enough alcohol in her system that she could have been charged with DUI even if she had been an adult.

Though the child's weight is undisclosed, a 140-pound adult would generally have to drink four beers in one hour to achieve a blood-alcohol level of .08.

After the wreck, the young driver was transported to South Baldwin Regional Medical Center in Foley for treatment of minor scrapes and bruises, Duck said. She was eventually released to family members.

The Monte Carlo belonged to family members, but police still aren't certain where she got the alcohol.

"There wasn't any alcohol in the car," Duck said. "She drank it before."

In addition to the drunken-driving charge, the girl faces charges of speeding, leaving the scene of an accident and reckless endangerment, Duck said.


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why would you give a kid like that back to her family, that's probably where she learned that behavior

Obviously she learned this behavior from homelife. Why would a 11 year old be doing out after 10:30, let alone drunk if she had a decent homelife.
Crazy world we live in and it just keeps getting worse.