Sheriff’s Wife Is Given Suspended Sentence in Drunk-Driving Case : Courts: Arrested last fall during her husband’s campaign, with an alleged blood alcohol level of 0.20%, Jeanette Roache pleads no contest.

Jeanette Roache, wife of San Diego County Sheriff Jim Roache, pleaded no contest Thursday to a misdemeanor drunk driving charge after prosecutors alleged she had been arrested with a blood alcohol level of 0.20%, or 2 1/2 times the legal limit of 0.08%.

She was sentenced immediately to a suspended 180-day jail term, five years’ probation and 60 hours of public service. She also was fined $990 and ordered to pay $30 court costs.

Neither Jeanette nor Jim Roache appeared at Thursday’s hearing in San Diego Municipal Court. She was in Sacramento on business.

Through her lawyer, Paul H. Neuharth Jr., Jeanette Roache entered a no-contest plea to a sole charge of driving with a blood-alcohol level of more than 0.08%. In exchange, as is common in misdemeanor drunk-driving cases, prosecutors from the city attorney’s office dropped a second count of driving under the influence.

Jeanette Roache could not be reached Thursday for comment. Jim Roache said the case “points out the facts that anyone, if they aren’t careful, could find themselves in the position of facing a drunk-driving charge, and that alcohol and substance abuse are problems in our society--and we all have to be aware that no one is invulnerable from it.”

Jeanette Roache, 42, a political consultant, was arrested shortly before 1 a.m. Sept. 21, in the midst of her husband’s election campaign, about 5 miles from home at the intersection of Santa Arminita Avenue and Camino Ruiz.

Police pulled up behind her as she waited at a stop sign. When she did not move forward, she was asked to take a sobriety test, which she failed, police said.

She was booked into County Jail at Las Colinas, where she was released on her own recognizance at 4:30 a.m.

Deputy City Atty. Scott Taylor, the prosecutor in the case, said Thursday that Jeanette Roache’s blood-alcohol content was 0.20%. Defense attorney Neuharth disputed that reading but did not elaborate.

The arrest did not play a major role in last fall’s election. Jim Roache, who was a sheriff’s captain, defeated Jack Drown, then assistant sheriff, in the race to succeed 20-year Sheriff John Duffy, who retired without seeking reelection.

Before sentencing, Neuharth urged San Diego Municipal Judge Frank Brown to keep Jeanette Roache’s sentence light because the car was not moving at the time of arrest.

Taylor responded, “The reason the car wasn’t moving is because she was passed out behind the steering wheel at the stop sign.”

Taylor also said that Jeanette Roache was “rather obnoxious” to the arresting officers.

After the hearing, Taylor elaborated. He said she “just made some statements about how ridiculous it was that they were bothering her, and they should be out catching the Clairemont killer,” a reference to the slayings last year of five women in the Clairemont-University City area.

The 180-day jail term was suspended for five years, as long as Jeanette Roache avoids other convictions. She was arrested about 10 years ago on suspicion of drunk driving and has said that she did not go to court but that details are hazy.

State Department of Motor Vehicle records go back only seven years, during which her driving record has been clear.

Brown resisted Taylor’s call to sentence Jeanette Roache to five days “public work service,” which is court system jargon for roadside trash detail. Instead, he imposed the 60 hours’ work at a nonprofit organization and said he did not want her to come into contact with anyone who might have a “grudge” against her husband.

Brown, who said in court that he was a personal friend of Jeanette and Jim Roache, also insisted that he could sentence her fairly. “Enough justice has been served in this case,” he said.