Ford Motor Company executive pleads guilty to drunk driving

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Elena Ford, director of global marketing, sales and service and great great granddaughter of company founder Henry Ford plead guilty yesterday to charges of drunk driving after an April 3rd incident in Ferndale, Michigan.

Elena Ford was pulled over on April 3rd after her 2011 Ford Explorer was seen by Ferndale police running up onto the center median along Woodward Avenue (click here for the original story about Elena Ford getting nabbed for drunk driving). When she was pulled over, she refused a breathalyzer test without her lawyer present although she was cooperative with the officer for the field sobriety test – which she failed. Ford was then arrested for DUI and shortly after she was found to have a blood-alcohol level of 0.18; more than twice the limit in the state of Michigan. Worst of all, in addition to cruising recklessly down Woodward Ave; she was doing so with her 11 year old son in the vehicle.

Ford plead guilty before District Judge Joseph Longo, admitting that she had 4 glasses of wine before getting pulled over and although she got out of the courtroom without jail time, she received two years probation, 240 hours of community service, court-ordered counseling and over $1,500 in court fees. Longo stated that in his courtroom, you get 93 days in jail whether you work the line or the boardroom…but he was kind enough to skip the three-month jail term for the Ford executive so long as she keeps her nose clean during her two-year probation.

This was Elena Ford’s first offense of any kind so she may get off with nothing more than her two years of probation and 10 days worth of community service but the Detroit News has reported that her incident has been submitted to the Michigan Department of Human Services for review of whether or not her children are at risk. Based on who she is and her lack of any previous incidents, the 44 year old Birmingham resident has seemingly gotten off easy – hopefully learning a valuable lesson from all of this.

Source: WXYZ-Detroit

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