DUI Suspect's 'Lethal Dose' Earns $50K Bail
A prosecutor called an Ore. woman with a .55 blood alcohol "an extreme danger."
Dec. 28, 2007 — -- Drunken driving suspects aren't typically held on $50,000 bail, but that was the case for a 30-year-old woman arrested with a blood-alcohol level nearly seven times the state's legal limit.
Meagan Harper, who has previous drunken driving convictions in two Oregon counties and a third stemming from an incident where she was at the controls of a boat, was found passed out in her car in the parking lot of a pizza parlor late last month by a member of the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office.
Harper, who weighs 130 pounds, was taken to an Oregon hospital where a test measured a .55 percent blood-alcohol level, a stunning number that meets the criteria of a "lethal dose," according to the Rutgers University Center of Alcohol Studies.
This level of intoxication, according to the center, would require a 100-pound man or woman to consume roughly 10 drinks in an hour or a 200-pound man to drink about six drinks each hour for four hours.
"You just don't see numbers that high," said Mohamud Daya, an associate professor and emergency room physician at the Oregon Health & Science University.
Harper was hit with five charges, including two counts of driving under the influence of an intoxicant, reckless endangerment of a person, criminal mischief and driving with a suspended license, according to the Clackamas County District Attorney's Office.
In court Wednesday, the prosecutor called her an "extreme danger" to the community. Judge Patrick Gilroy agreed, setting bail at $50,000 and telling her she needs help or she'll "end up dead or taking someone with you."
Harper will be in court next month, according to the prosecutor's office. She is already on probation for driving under the influence and is awaiting trial on one of the other drunken driving charges.
ABC News could not leave a message for Adrian Smith, Harper's attorney, because his voice mailbox was full.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
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