Drunk driver chooses wine over court

A policeman tells Rachael Brown that she must go back to the courthouse for sentencing. Photo / Sarah Ivey

A woman who was seven months pregnant when caught drink-driving for the eighth time was due to be sentenced yesterday but instead sat outside the courthouse drinking wine.

A warrant for Rachael Brown's arrest was issued when she failed to turn up in the Rotorua District Court but police patrolling the area saw the 38-year-old near the courthouse and walked her back there.

When she made it to the dock an hour and a half late, Judge Phillip Cooper asked Brown's lawyer, Brett Cooper, if his client was intoxicated.

Brown put the hood of her red jumper over her head and asked "How do you know?" before turning her back on the judge.

Her lawyer said she was intoxicated and Judge Cooper said he refused to sentence her in the state she was in on the charges of drink-driving and driving while disqualified.

He remanded her in custody to sober up for sentencing today.

As Brown left the courtroom, her heavily tattooed partner yelled, "Love you, hon, see you tomorrow." Brown yelled back, "Love you, too."

Before her appearance yesterday, Brown sat on a bench drinking white wine with a female and a male supporter.

She then started walking away from the court towards the city centre on Tutanekai St.

She cried as a police officer approached her and told her to go to court.

An officer had to tell her supporters to calm down as they yelled obscenities at the media. One woman yelled at a photographer: "This is how reporters get killed."

Brown has never held a driver's licence and was banned in 2005 from ever having one.

At her last appearance in March, for which she was about two hours late, Brown went straight to VC's Turf Bar up the road.

Earlier, supporters sitting in the public gallery had to be told by the judge to be quiet.

A judge had previously warned Brown that home detention was not an option and she was looking at a lengthy jail term.

She was stopped by police on July 26, 2006, after she indicated to turn right out of Homedale St in Rotorua but turned left. She appeared to be trying to avoid a checkpoint, police said.

Her breath-alcohol level was measured at 994mcg per litre of breath, 594mcg over the legal limit.

Two passengers were in the car and Brown told the police she was driving because she was the least drunk of the three.

It was her eighth drink-driving conviction and her 15th for driving while disqualified.

Brown had earlier denied the latest charges but changed her pleas to guilty in January. She was remanded on bail only because she was the sole caregiver of her two children and was looking after her partner's children while he was in jail, Rotorua's Daily Post reported.

Mr Cooper said Brown's partner had now been released. Brown had been looking after four or five children. Last night, they were being cared for by someone else.

The baby Brown was pregnant with when she was arrested is in the care of a family member. It is not known if the infant suffered any health problems because of her drinking.

The charges carry penalties of up to two years' imprisonment, $6000 fines and disqualification from driving.