Oregon woman charged with drunken driving tests .55 percent

OREGON CITY, Ore. — When they got Meagan Harper to the hospital, her blood alcohol level was .55 percent — about seven times greater than Oregon's legal limit for driving.

"You just don't see numbers that high," said Dr. Mohamud Daya, an Oregon Health & Science University associate professor and emergency room physician.

At that level, some people are so drunk they stop breathing, he said.

Harper has drunken driving convictions in Washington and Multnomah counties and was convicted in Wasco County of operating a boat while intoxicated, said Ryan Chiotti, deputy district attorney in Clackamas County. He said she is on probation for driving under the influence and is awaiting trial on another drunken driving charge next month.

A Clackamas deputy found her passed out in a car at a pizza restaurant on Nov. 28.

She appeared in court Wednesday. Chiotti urged she be jailed, under high bail, as "an extraordinary danger to the community."

Judge Patrick Gilroy set her bail at $50,000 and told her to get help, "or you'll end up dead or taking someone with you."