Karen Huger, who stars in the “Real Housewives of Potomac,” was sentenced to spend a year in jail. News4’s Aimee Cho reports what she said in court.
The "Grand Dame" of reality TV is about to spend a year behind bars for a DUI crash in Potomac, Maryland.
"Real Housewives of Potomac" star Karen Huger was sentenced to two years in jail with one year suspended on Wednesday. Once she's released, she's expected to be under probation for five years.
A Montgomery County jury found her guilty of driving under the influence and several other charges in December.
Huger crashed her white Maserati last spring, taking down multiple street signs in a Potomac neighborhood lined with cherry trees. Huger wasn't injured.
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In court, Huger apologized and said she's gone to rehab for depression and substance abuse issues.
"Drinking responsibly, especially while taking medications, mean(s) not drinking at all," she told the court. "I failed at that miserably. I understand how lucky I am that I hit a tree. Thank god I did not hit a pedestrian."
Huger had been arrested three times before for drunk driving offenses.
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She told the judge Wednesday she plans to be a lifelong member of Alcoholics Anonymous.
"I have a responsibility to use my unique optic lens and teach others and affect quite possibly millions of people with the message of not drinking and driving," she said.
Huger's attorney argued for her not to serve any jail time, asking the judge if she could instead to home confinement. The defense suggested she could use a personal breathalyzer several times a day to prove her sobriety.
But the judge pushed back, saying Huger needed to learn her lesson and serve jail time.
"We need to help Ms. Huger break this dangerous and destructive pattern and, at the same time, protect the public," Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge Terrence McGann said.
After she gets out of jail, Huger won't be allowed to drive for a year and then she'll have to use a breathalyzer device in her car for another four years, McGann said.
Some "Real Housewives" fans came to court and watched as Huger was taken into custody.
"We’ve been in Potomac. We know what those roads look like, so it’s kinda like you have no choice to be held accountable to what’s going on," said Brandi Phillips, a fan of the show.
Huger's attorney said she was at peace with the sentence and was ready to get through it.
Body camera video the state's attorney's office released after Huger's conviction shows her slurring her words while talking to police officers in front of her damaged car.
Later, when Huger is in police custody, she tells police she is "Thomas Jefferson's concubine" and repeatedly asks the officers if they know who she is.
Her husband, Ray Huger, came to the scene after the crash and the video shows him standing beside her while an officer asks her questions.
The officer is heard asking her, "Do you remember the accident?"
Karen Huger pauses for a while before answering, "Yes."
"What happened?" the officer asks.
"Actually, nothing really," Karen Huger says.
Ray Huger then says, "Yeah, somebody ran you off the road."
"They did," she says.
Then, when the officer asks her if she remembers the vehicle at all, she says, "No."
The officer tries a few times to ask Karen Huger how much she had to drink, but she repeatedly doesn't answer the question.
"I was out, but I'm good," she tells the officer.
When he asks her again, she tells him to talk to her husband, who wasn't there at the time of the crash.
"I can't talk to your husband; he's not really involved in this incident," the officer says.
"No, he is. He is," she responds.
At that point, Ray Huger is seen searching through his wife's purse in an apparent effort to find her license.
"How much did you have to drink tonight?" the officer asks again.
Karen Huger looks at the officer with her head tilted to the side before turning to her husband and asking, "Ray, are you good?" as he searches through her purse.
"I'm good. I'm just saying they're assuming you had more than you should have. And I'm assuming you had, like, a couple beers or something like that," Ray Huger says.
"Yes, that's all I had," Karen Huger says.
The crash crushed the front of her Maserati on the driver's side. Tire marks showed the path the car took off of the road and into a grassy area with cherry trees.
One photo provided by the state's attorney's office showed a bottle of Stella Artois beer inside Huger's car.
Hugar was convicted of DUI, negligent driving, failure to control speed to avoid a collision and failure to notify of address change, the Montgomery County State's Attorney's Office said. The jury cleared her of a reckless driving charge.
