WEST PALM BEACH — A 65-year-old West Palm Beach woman is facing criminal charges following her Dec. 26 arrest in a deadly crash this past spring near Palm Beach International Airport.
The state is charging Susan Gayle Elman with one count apiece of DUI causing serious bodily injury and of reckless driving in the April 2 death of Charlie Gilbert, 41, of Riviera Beach.
Police allege Elman was above the state’s legal threshold for intoxication when her Hummer collided with Gilbert’s Ford Mustang at Belvedere Road and Australian Avenue. Toxicology results showed that she had a blood-alcohol level of 0.052 in a blood-draw taken nearly three hours after the crash. The state’s threshold for intoxication is 0.08.
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Elman is free on $15,000 bond. During a Dec. 27 hearing at the Palm Beach County Jail, county Judge Ted Booras ordered her to refrain from alcohol or any drugs taken without a prescription.
An attorney who represented Elman at the hearing could not immediately be reached for comment Tuesday.
Woman told police she had two drinks on night of fatal crash
According to an arrest report, an investigator who responded to the scene shortly after 11 p.m. noted that Elman smelled of alcohol and described her eyes as bloodshot.
Investigators reported Elman told them she had attended a speaking event at the Airport Hilton hotel that April night and met with friends at its restaurant. She said she consumed two drinks, both of them gin and club soda, one at the speaking event and one at dinner, the arrest report said.
She reportedly agreed to have her blood drawn and her vehicle searched. Elman requested an attorney after being asked if she would consent to a second blood draw.
Julius Whigham II is a criminal justice and public safety reporter for The Palm Beach Post. You can reach him at jwhigham@pbpost.com and follow him on Twitter at @JuliusWhigham. Help support our work: Subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Man’s death in crash near PBIA leads to DUI charge for West Palm woman