Stanislaus Supervisor Kristin Olsen formally charged with DUI
Stanislaus County Supervisor Kristin Olsen has been formally charged with driving while intoxicated and is set for arraignment Oct. 17 in Sacramento Superior Court.
The Sacramento County district attorney charged Olsen with a misdemeanor count of driving under the influence of alcohol and a second count of driving with a blood alcohol level of .08 percent or more.
Olsen’s blood alcohol level was not released by authorities.
The supervisor was arrested by California Highway Patrol on Sept. 12 after an unmarked sheriff’s department vehicle stopped her on eastbound Interstate 80 in Sacramento. Olsen had been driving erratically with her headlights off, CHP said. She was arrested about 11:30 p.m. and taken into custody.
Olsen, a former Modesto council member, served for six years in the state Assembly, and after terming out, was elected to a county Board of Supervisors seat in 2016. She represents a district including Riverbank and Oakdale.
She has attended county government meetings since the arrest three weeks ago.
Olsen and her attorney, Robert Forkner of Modesto, did not return a message Tuesday morning. Forkner has said Olsen’s car had broken down earlier that day and was towed to a dealer. To explain Olsen’s erratic driving, Forkner said she was not familiar with operating the loaner car provided by the dealer.
Forkner said Olsen had two glasses of wine at a dinner a couple of hours before the traffic stop, and he believed she would be found innocent.
Olsen’s car — a Mini Cooper — had stalled on Highway 99 in Stockton that day, according to a Facebook post shortly after 6 p.m. Sept. 12. In her post, Olsen posed for a picture with a tow driver and thanked him for towing her car all the way to the dealership in Sacramento. She wrote that the driver even bought her water and salt-and-vinegar chips.
“I have more car trouble than anyone I know,” her post says.
Forkner previously said that, after the dinner, Olsen’s plan was to spend the night at her sister’s home in the Sacramento area and then fly to Los Angeles for business.
In her only statement on the case, which was texted to The Bee last month, Olsen said: “I regret having made this inadvertent, careless mistake.”
If she is convicted, the penalties may include a fine, court assessments and probation. Her drivers license could be suspended for six months, though that may be avoided through a Department of Motor Vehicles hearing.
This story was originally published October 2, 2018 at 1:27 PM.