Events leading up to Bridge's arrest

About 6 p.m. Friday, State Supreme Court Justice Bobbe Bridge arrived at a party at a Queen Anne Hill home near Boston Street, an informal reunion for volunteers who helped train Moroccan women to run for office.

Bridge left about 9 p.m., according to a witness.

She drove west in her Mercedes on West Dravus Street. She lives nearby, in the Magnolia neighborhood.

Mark Schroeder, 50, of Mercer Island, an IRS employee, was driving to Magnolia to visit a relative. Bridge's car was in front of him; Schroeder said Bridge was weaving from side to side. Near the intersection of 20th Avenue West, the Mercedes sideswiped a parked pickup on the north side of the street and kept going, Schroeder said.

He flashed his high beams a couple of times as the car veered to the left, forcing an oncoming car onto the curb, he said. Bridge's car then overcorrected to the right, jumping onto the sidewalk.

"It was like a bumper-car thing. That was what was keeping her in the lanes," Schroeder recalled. "I thought, 'This has to be stopped.' "

Schroeder followed in his car. Still on West Dravus Street, near the intersection with 28th Avenue West, he accelerated and stopped in front of Bridge's car. He said he got out and ran to the driver's side of the Mercedes. He said the driver rolled down the window and asked, "What are you doing?"

He said he told the driver she had hit a car and "almost killed some people in a head-on."

He then reached over and put her car in park.

Two other vehicles pulled up behind the Mercedes, boxing it in. Schroeder told one of the drivers to call police.

Two Seattle police officers arrived at 9:15 p.m. Bridge was in the driver's seat of her car. The police report notes Bridge's eyes were "very red and watery," she had a "strong odor of alcohol on her breath" and her "speech (was) slurred and her movements were slow and deliberate." Her passenger mirror was damaged, and her right front tire was flat, according to the police report.

The officers arrested Bridge for suspicion of driving under the influence and hit and run, and they took her to the Public Safety Building downtown. Shortly after 10 p.m., the officers conducted two blood-alcohol tests. They recorded levels of 0.219 and 0.227 percent, according to the police report.

The state's legal limit is 0.08 percent.