Woman Tries to Get Out of DUI By Telling Cops She Was Driving Around to 'Sober Up': Police

A woman who police suspected was driving drunk late Friday night tried to get out of an arrest by convincing cops she was "just driving around to sober up."

Katherine L. Muhlenbruc, 25, was stopped by Riverside police around 4:15 a.m. Jan. 27, according to a release. She had reportedly been crossing the center line of the road while driving north on Harlem Avenue and also crossed the double yellow lines several times. She was pulled over at the intersection of Harlem and Ogden Avenues and when police asked her about her swerving, she said she'd been at a bar in Darien and was driving to the White Castle in Berwyn to "sober up."

"Unbelievably, the defendant in this case was so intoxicated that she actually tried to convince the officer that she was driving to sober up," Riverside Police Chief Thomas Weitzel said in the release. "That statement in itself is ridiculous and shows the intoxication level of the driver."

Muhlenbruc failed six roadside sobriety tests before being transported back to the police station, where she blew a .115 in a breathalyzer test. That's almost two times the legal limit to drive.

She told cops that she "wasn't that drunk" and that she'd just had three Sex on the Beaches — a cocktail consisting of vodka, cranberry juice, peach schnapps and orange juice — at the bar.

"She continued to state that she was not intoxicated but would have sobered up eventually if she had continued to drive and not been stopped by the police," the release reads.

Muhlenbruc was ultimately charged with two counts of drunk driving, driving with no insurance, improper lane usage and driving in the wrong lane.

"Numerous avenues are available to those who choose to drink to get home safely, such as Uber and Lyft," Weitzel said. "Driving around to sober up is not one of them."

--

Mugshot courtesy of Riverside PD