Bridge faces questioners

OLYMPIA — State Supreme Court Justice Bobbe Bridge said yesterday she wishes she could "rewind the clock" to before she drank, drove and hit another vehicle last month.

She also reiterated that she is ready to take responsibility and be held accountable for driving drunk.

But Bridge is fighting the charge that the Feb. 28 accident was a hit-and-run. Her attorney said yesterday he wants the Seattle City Attorney's Office to drop the misdemeanor charges because Bridge didn't know she had hit a parked pickup on her way home from a party that night.

"I just think that the suggestion that Justice Bridge was trying to leave the scene of an accident is really inaccurate," attorney Jeff Robinson said.

"Hit and run requires someone to make a conscious decision: 'I have hit a car and I'm leaving so I won't get caught.' That did not occur on Feb. 28."

That night Bridge was arrested after driving from Queen Anne Hill to her home in the Magnolia neighborhood. Police say her blood-alcohol level was 0.22 percent, nearly three times the legal limit of 0.08 percent.

Her Mercedes sideswiped the parked pickup. Another driver then blocked Bridge's car and forced her to stop.

Yesterday was Bridge's first day back on the bench since the arrest. She met with reporters at a law office during a break in the court's hearings.

Police were unimpressed with Robinson's theory of the city's hit-and-run ordinance. On the contrary, a spokesman said yesterday, Seattle's ordinance doesn't require knowledge that an accident has occurred.

Spokesman Duane Fish said police often cite drivers for hit-and-run even though the drivers claim they didn't know they hit something. And it's not only intoxicated motorists. Often they are elderly drivers who have lost driving skills, he said.

"That doesn't excuse you from committing the crime," Fish said. "The fact that you are unaware is not a defense."

Bridge said she has been going through a lot of soul-searching. She has been attending three court-ordered counseling sessions a week, has been ordered to stop drinking and has scheduled a screening to determine whether she has an alcohol problem.

"Up until Friday, I didn't think I had a problem with alcohol," Bridge said.

Now, she's not so sure. She said she drinks "episodically" but didn't offer details on her alcohol use.

"I think that's between the evaluator and me," she said. "I'm not an expert in alcohol use or abuse, so I think that's going to be an insight for me."

Bridge said she would not raise any objections to the drunk-driving charge, the results of the blood-alcohol test or the field sobriety test. She will either plead guilty or ask for deferred prosecution that entails a two-year intensive treatment program that expunges a DUI from the record.

Bridge, 58, was appointed to the Supreme Court in 2000 to replace retiring Justice Barbara Durham. She was elected to a full six-year term after running unopposed last year.

She said yesterday she has spoken to Chief Justice Gerry Alexander about how her arrest will affect her work on cases before the state's highest court.

She said she will look at any case related to drunken driving very closely to see if "the issues involved and my own particular experience would compromise my ability to be fair and impartial."

If that happens, Bridge said, she would not take part in the case.

Bridge said she is aware that many people are angry at her and think she should resign from the Supreme Court.

And there have been times since the arrest that Bridge thought she should quit.

"I am human," she said. "I have made a huge human error and it is how I respond to that error which will determine whether or not I really do deserve to stay on this bench.

"And I think right now my response is appropriate."

David Postman: 360-943-9882 or dpostman@seattletimes.com

Ian Ith: 206-464-2109 or iith@seattletimes.com