A Montgomery Township woman has avoided jail time after entering a guilty plea to several charges stemming from her DUI arrest in September 2019.
Emily Patterson, 25, was sentenced to 72 hours of home confinement and one year of probation on March 4, after pleading guilty to misdemeanor charges of DUI and reckless endangerment, according to court records. Charges of DUI - controlled substance and summary charges of obedience to traffic-control devices and careless driving were dismissed, court records indicate.
The most serious charge — a third-degree felony count of endangering the welfare of children with a maximum sentence of seven years in prison — was also dismissed at the time Patterson entered her guilty plea to the lesser charges, according to court records.
All charges stem from an incident that occurred in Montgomery Township during the evening of Sept. 21, 2019.
According to the criminal complaint, Montgomery Township Police were patrolling the area of Knapp Road and Dekalb Pike on Sept. 21 at 10:04 p.m. when a vehicle made an illegal pass from the left turning lane and continued past the police vehicle which was stopped at the intersection, the report states.
Police said the vehicle passed very close to their vehicle, and never slowed down.
Police switched on their emergency lights and sirens and followed the vehicle at a high rate of speed down Bell Run Boulevard to Kenwood Drive, where the vehicle nearly struck two pedestrians who were attempting to cross the road, the report states. Police then located the vehicle parked in front of a home along the 1300 block of Kenwood Drive, and noted that the vehicle was parked at an angle facing the curb, rather than perpendicular, according to the complaint.
As police approached the vehicle, they observed a dog in the front passenger seat and a two-year-old boy buckled into a car seat, the report states. The boy’s mother, identified as Patterson, came out from the doorway to the house and identified herself as the driver of the vehicle, police said.
The report states that Patterson was wide-eyed and nervous, with sweat beading on her forehead. Police said they could smell alcohol on Patterson’s breath, and she allegedly admitted to having a few drinks but added that she was not driving drunk. The report states that clues of impairment were observed during a field sobriety test, and Patterson was given a preliminary breath test which indicated a positive result for alcohol.
Patterson was then taken into custody, where she consented to a blood test, the report states.
Several weeks later, police received the results of the blood test, which showed that Patterson had a blood-alcohol content of .159% and was also under the influence of marijuana at the time of the blood test.
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