WARREN - A Cortland woman who has been serving a three-year prison sentence for her eighth drunken driving charge, was given an additional three years to serve Thursday for her ninth DUI.
Cherilynn Waldron, 37, formerly a respiratory therapist at Northside Medical Center, had to be awakened by a Cortland police officer with her car still in ''drive'' Oct. 25.
''She couldn't even tell the officer her own name,'' said assistant county prosecutor Michael Burnett, who said Waldron finally told the officer she went to the store to get milk.
''There was no milk in the car. The officer only found open containers of beer,'' Burnett said, adding that Waldron refused to take any field sobriety tests or a breath test.
The officer said he saw a suspicious car in the parking lot of Cortland Church of the Nazarene and thought it may have been a newspaper deliverperson. But in his rear view mirror he saw the car pull out, roll across the street over a sidewalk and into a yard at 100 Maple St., Cortland, without braking.
The incident occurred soon after Waldron was taken off electronically monitored house arrest because of an allergic reaction to the ankle bracelet she had been wearing.
She was on house arrest at the time for her eighth DUI arrest after she was found passed out behind the wheel of her car Feb. 24 , 2010, at the intersection of state Route 46 and Cadwallader Sonk Road in Bazetta. After being awakened there, Waldron asked a Highway Patrol trooper if he would hold her hand while she took the customary sobriety test of standing on one leg, according to testimony.
The woman's car ran into a guidewire and was near the road, catching the attention of the trooper.
Since the crash was on private property, the trooper called a Bazetta officer.
Waldron refused that breath test as well and was convicted by a jury in January.
Common Pleas Judge Andrew Logan sentenced her to three years Feb. 28 and Waldron had to be brought back from Marysville Reformatory for Women for Thursday's sentencing - the result of guilty plea March 22 on the Maple Street arrest.
Judge John M. Stuard gave Waldron the additional three years after she apologized and after Burnett recommended an additional 10 years for a total of 13 rather than the six years she was given.