A Gallo family member crashed her Maserati in Merced, is accused of felony DUI

The high-speed crash sent the Maserati barreling into a ditch, one wheel torn from the frame of the high-end car and three other vehicles damaged in the wreck.

Police said the woman driving, the wife of a California cheese magnate whose husband is also part of a well-known wine-making family, was drunk and speeding at more than 125 mph when she tried to pass a vehicle on a two-lane road in Merced and sideswiped it.

Now, Lori Gallo, wife of Joseph Gallo Farms CEO and co-founder Michael Gallo, is facing a charge of driving under the influence.

Gallo, 47, got too close to a Lexus she was trying to speed past as she approached an intersection about 7 p.m. on Jan. 20, Merced police say. The impact with the Lexus sent Gallo’s charcoal-gray Maserati careening into a Honda that was stopped at the crossroads, and both of the luxury vehicles ended up in a ditch several hundred feet away. A fourth car was damaged after it hit a tire and wheel that were ripped off Gallo’s car, authorities said.

Three people were injured in the collision, including the drivers of the Lexus and Honda, police said.

Gallo was arrested on suspicion of felony DUI collision causing injury and booked into the Merced County jail. She had a blood alcohol level over twice the legal limit, according to authorities with the Merced Police Department. She was released after she posted bail.

On Monday, she pleaded not guilty to driving under the influence of alcohol and driving with a .08% blood alcohol content causing injury, according to the Merced Sun-Star.

As a condition of her release, Merced County Superior Court Judge Steven Slocum ordered Gallo to refrain from alcohol and drugs, not enter any businesses that sell alcoholic beverages and attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. Her attorney, Peter Jones, told the court his client attends AA meetings three times a week and she’s enrolled in a voluntary driving-while-intoxicated program.

“She is very dedicated to the Merced community,” Jones told the Merced Sun-Star. “She is taking this case very seriously.”