Shannon Beador of “The Real Housewives of Orange County” will not serve jail time for multiple DUI charges.
Instead, Beador agreed on Nov. 2 to plead no contest to misdemeanor DUI charges in return for the dismissal of a misdemeanor hit-and-run charge.
Beador received three years of informal probation, meaning she does not have to report to a probation officer, and 40 hours of community service. Orange County Superior Judge Brett London also ordered Beador to enroll in a first-time offender alcohol program.
The prosecution, which had requested that Beador serve 30 days in jail, alleged that Beador was getting off lightly because of her celebrity. But Beador’s attorney accused prosecutors of seeking a punishment “beyond the normal sentencing offer for a first-time DUI where no one was injured.”
Beador crashed her car shortly before midnight Sept. 16 into an apartment complex in the 500 block of Clubhouse Avenue in Newport Beach. Security camera footage shows Beador speeding around a corner and losing control of her vehicle. After crashing into the residential building and narrowly missing the front door, she quickly reversed her car off the sidewalk before cruising away.
The officer who arrived at the scene discovered “moderate” property damage — later valued at $24,100 — and a trail of vehicle fluid and debris leading to a broken-down vehicle on Via Lido.
When he encountered Beador, she was crying and “stumbling” on a sidewalk “with a large dog near her” — Page Six suggested she “tried to act like she was just walking her pup” Archie, who’d been in the car with her — according to a prosecution filing. She sustained multiple wounds in the crash, including a fractured left wrist, a cut and bruising around her left eye. Her blood-alcohol level was 0.24%, three times the legal limit.
According to Deputy Dist. Attny. Dang Vu, Beador told the officer “they had to be careful because she was part of a television show” and “the current incident could not be made public or put on social media.”
The officer determined Beador’s speech was slurred and that she smelled of alcohol. She explained that she had gone to a restaurant at 6:30 p.m., drank three large tequila sodas, and then after dinner had gone to an ex-boyfriend’s house before being kicked out. She said she’d left the scene of the accident because she didn’t think the damage was significant, the prosecution wrote.
She was arrested and released Sept. 17 on $2,500 bail.
“I am grateful that no one else was injured besides me in this incident,” Beador said in a statement following the hearing. “I have learned so much from my terrible mistake that night and realize that driving any distance while impaired is too far.”
