CALIFORNIA BRIEFING / IRVINE

A ranking Orange County sheriff’s official has been charged with two misdemeanor counts of driving under the influence of alcohol after causing a car accident.

Irvine police arrested Lt. Erin Lorraine Guidice, 48, last month after the vehicle she was driving crashed into the back of another car stopped at a red light on Jamboree Road.

She was driving an unmarked Orange County Sheriff’s Department vehicle at the time, according to the Orange County district attorney’s office, which filed the charges Thursday.

Irvine police said Guidice had slurred speech, bloodshot and watery eyes and had trouble keeping her balance during a sobriety test. She had a blood alcohol-level of 0.14%, or nearly twice the legal limit, authorities said. The driver of the other vehicle was not injured.

After the accident, Guidice was transferred from her post as head of the sheriff’s Harbor Patrol to a position at the county’s Theo Lacy Jail. If convicted, she faces a maximum sentence of six months in jail. She is scheduled to be arraigned next month.

-- My-Thuan Tran