A Broward County judge is facing DUI charges following her arrest in Plantation Thursday, authorities said.
Gisele Pollack, 56, is facing one count of DUI, three counts of DUI causing property damage and one count of failure to use due care, Broward court records showed. Pollack was arrested and later released Friday.
According to the arrest report, officers described the "smell of alcohol coming from (Pollack's) mouth. The odor grew stronger as she spoke." The same officer said that when he looked into her car he saw "numerous alcoholic beverages in the trunk of the vehicle and an empty plastic cup on the floor of the front passenger seat."
The arrest report stated Pollack at first consented to giving a blood sample, but then refused. The officer said he tried a roadside sobriety test, but she was unsteady on her feet. When the officer told her she was under arrest for DUI, "she was sobbing and screaming that she didn't want to go to jail."
A spokeswoman for the 17th Judicial Circuit released a statement about the arrest Friday.
"Matters such as this are handled by the State Judicial Qualification Commission and this court will defer to them. In the interim, the Chief Judge has decided that Judge Pollack who is currently on leave, shall continue to be suspended from any judicial assignments until further notice," the statement read.
Pollack has been open about her battle with alcoholism in the past and admitted she had suffered a relapse in December, the Sun Sentinel reported. She said she was going to take time off to seek treatment and she later returned to work, the paper reported.
