Woman pleads guilty to road-rage incident
The Daily Inter Lake
A Kalispell woman has pleaded guilty to a drunk-driving road-rage incident that culminated in a crashed car and a damaged boat.
Elaine Sina Jackson, 39, entered guilty pleas to criminal endangerment, felony criminal mischief and driving with a blood alcohol level of .08 or higher, a misdemeanor, during a change of plea hearing Wednesday in Flathead County District Court.
In exchange for her guilty plea, prosecutors dropped two additional counts of criminal endangerment, assault with a weapon, and theft charges against Jackson.
The allegations stemmed from two separate incidents.
According to court documents, Jackson was arrested in July 2008 after crashing her spouse's 2001 Jeep Cherokee in a drunk-driving accident on Conrad Drive. Jackson's blood alcohol level was .221.
Before the crash, the Montana Highway Patrol had received a call from a motorist saying Jackson was tailgating her down the highway and trying to run her off the road - sometimes at speeds of up to 90 mph. The road-rage incident reportedly included shouted obscenities and a several-mile chase.
Minutes later, Jackson ran her car into a guardrail after hitting a second Jeep and a boat on a trailer. Both vehicles suffered extensive damage and the boat was ruled totaled.
Jackson, who admitted to drinking 12 beers before driving from Hungry Horse into Kalispell, testified Wednesday that she didn't remember the crash. She also apologized for any damage she caused.
In September 2007, Kalispell police officers responded to the 500 block of Parkway Drive to find Jackson's common-law husband with 10 surgical staples in his forearm.
The alleged victim told police Jackson had given him a 3- to 4-inch gash with a kitchen knife during an all-day argument about cleaning the house. She also reportedly hit him in the side of the head with a pair of Vise-Grip pliers and scratched his chest, tearing his shirt. Charges related to the alleged altercation were dropped as part of the plea bargain with prosecutors.