Rachel Alexander, a conservative Arizona political pundit and former Maricopa County prosecutor, pleaded guilty Thursday in a Scottsdale court to extreme DUI. The plea follows an arrest in December.
According to The Arizona Republic, Alexander was arrested on Dec. 21.
Alexander's Condition and a 0.230% Reading
Alexander was described as argumentative, stuporous and incoherent. Lab results later showed her blood-alcohol level at 0.230%, more than two and a half times the state's standard legal limit, as the station reported in an earlier account of the case.
The case took months to resolve. As of April, the matter was still winding through Scottsdale City Court with multiple continuances, the latest of which had come in March, the same outlet noted at the time. Alexander pleaded guilty Thursday.
A Separate Registration Charge
A separate charge alleges that Alexander drove without valid registration.
Under Arizona's DUI sentencing chart, a person convicted of extreme DUI under subsection A, paragraph 1, must serve at least 30 consecutive days, and that sentence cannot be suspended unless the entire sentence is served. The extreme DUI offense itself falls under Arizona Revised Statutes section 28-1382, which governs driving or being in actual physical control of a vehicle while under the extreme influence of alcohol.
A Past Run-In With Discipline Over a Lawsuit
Alexander's legal troubles aren't new. She previously had her law license suspended for six months after the Arizona Supreme Court reduced an earlier suspension tied to a frivolous RICO lawsuit. A disciplinary finding, published by the State Bar of Arizona through the Arizona Attorney magazine, concluded that Alexander violated a legal ethics rule by maintaining the lawsuit, which the disciplinary court found to be legally and factually deficient both in its original complaint and in a proposed amended version.
That disciplinary history adds context to Alexander's public profile as a former prosecutor turned political commentator, a combination that has kept her name in local headlines well beyond this latest case. Alexander has pleaded guilty in the DUI case, while a separate charge alleges driving without valid registration.
