Good to Go: Woman's Blood Alcohol Content Tops State Records at .708

There's a record?

A Sturgis woman had a blood-alcohol level of .708 percent, possibly a state record, when she was found earlier this month behind the wheel of a stolen vehicle parked on Interstate 90, according to Meade County State’s Attorney Jesse Sondreal.

A South Dakota Highway Patrol trooper discovered Marguerite Engle, 45, on Dec. 1 passed out behind the wheel of a delivery truck reported stolen in Rapid City.
Her blood-alcohol level was almost nine times South Dakota’s legal limit of .08 percent.

Checks with local and state labs where blood-alcohol levels are tested suggest Engle’s reading may be the highest ever recorded in South Dakota, Sondreal said.

Sondreal said a state chemist recalled a sample that tested .53, but nothing higher, in his more than 30 years on the job.

Dr. Robert Looyenga, who recently retired from the Rapid City Police Department’s forensic laboratory, told Sondreal that the highest blood-alcohol sample he tested measured .56 percent.

Sondreal’s research indicates that a blood-alcohol level of .40 is considered a lethal dose for about 50 percent of the population.

“Engle’s was almost double that,” Sondreal said.

After she was found, Engle was hospitalized and freed on bond.

She failed to appear in court on Dec. 15, but Sturgis police located her Monday evening in another stolen car sitting in a ditch along S.D. Highway 34 near Fort Meade.

They didn't let her out on bond again.

Note to self: Facebook-friend Marguerite Engle. I think I have a pretty decent chance with her, if you know what I'm saying. (And what I'm saying is hot, dirty coma-sex.)

Um, let me do a PSA here: Take it easy tonight, guys. I'm really pretty much addressing this to myself, but you're welcome to take the advice yourself.

Personally, every time I go out on New Year's, I get drunker than intended and drunker than I wanted to be. It's really dumb. If three or four is enough any other night, it should be enough for tonight, when all we're really doing is celebrating the use of a new calender.

That's like whooping it up just because the new TV Guide is out.

So everyone chill, drink very slowly, alternate drinks with glasses of water (and nurse both), because you probably will end up drinking too much anyway, and it's better to drink as little too much as possible.

Everyone stay safe and stuff. It's going to be a good year, and you should be here for it.

Thanks to Rodney for the tip.

posted by Ace at 05:02 PM

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