Crime & Safety
Former Mayor Pleads Not Guilty in Alleged DUI Crash
A former Los Alamitos mayor faces misdemeanor charges for a May 30 accident in which prosecutors allege she was driving under the influence.
Former Los Alamitos Mayor Catherine Ann Driscoll, 42, pleaded not guilty this week to charges that she was driving under the influence when she drove off a freeway onramp and struck a tree in Los Alamitos.
Driscoll pleaded not guilty to one misdemeanor count of driving under the influence and one misdemeanor count of driving with a blood alcohol level in excess of .08 percent.
Driscoll, who served one term at the helm of the city until 2008, was hospitalized briefly following the May 30 crash. It was about 11:42 p.m. on May 30 when CHP officers responded to a report of an accident off the southbound San Gabriel (605) Freeway Katella Avenue onramp.
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“As she entered the onramp, [Driscoll] drove over the side and collided into a tree,” California Highway Patrol spokesman Officer Raymus Payton said at the time of the crash.
Driscoll is scheduled to be back in court for a pretrial hearing on Thursday.
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