Enough Liquor to Die, but She Was Driving

A Glendale woman arrested after a hit-and-run accident had a blood-alcohol level more than five times the legal definition of drunk, high enough to have knocked out or killed many people, authorities said Thursday.

The woman, who weighs 105 pounds and had the equivalent of three-quarters of a pint of bourbon in her system two hours after the accident, told investigating officers she did not drink, police said.

“I’m amazed she was upright and walking at all,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael Pargament.

The woman had a blood- alcohol reading of 0.46%, he said. Under California traffic laws, a reading of 0.08% is considered proof of drunkenness.

“In the 21 years I’ve been a prosecutor, I’ve only seen a very few over 0.4%,” Pargament said. “I’ve seen a lot of coroner’s reports for people who had a 0.4% reading or more. But this one was able to drive, walk and talk.”

Ronald Alkana, a professor of pharmacology at USC, said that “at 0.4%, half the people die of alcohol poisoning.”

“The average person would be comatose at that level,” said Dan Nathan, a supervisor in the sheriff’s blood-alcohol section, which processes 300 blood and urine samples each week. He added, however, “there are people walking and talking and driving that have these kind of levels.”

“It’s an excessively high reading but not the highest we’ve ever had. I’ve testified in a case where a woman had a reading of 0.55%.”

Pargament filed three misdemeanor counts Tuesday of driving under the influence of alcohol and fleeing the scene of an accident against Cathylynne Marie Johnson, 27. She is to be arraigned May 4. If convicted, Johnson faces a maximum penalty of a year in jail, Pargament said. She has no record of previous drunk-driving arrests, he said.

According to Glendale police, Johnson’s 1986 Plymouth Reliant rear-ended another car on Verdugo Road near Towne Street on March 27, and the driver fled. No one was injured, but officers traced the license plate number to Johnson immediately after the accident and went to her residence.

The police report said Johnson appeared to be intoxicated, and officers asked what she had been drinking. According to the report, she replied: “Nothing. I don’t drink.”

The officers arrested Johnson, and she provided a blood sample at a Glendale hospital two hours after the accident. The blood sample was analyzed by the Sheriff’s Department laboratory.

A woman who identified herself as Johnson’s mother said Thursday that her daughter did not want to comment on the incident.