McWilliams, who also goes by the surname Nesdale, wept today as she stood in the dock at Auckland District Court for sentencing.
She faced up to three months' imprisonment and a fine of up to $4500 for two counts of driving with excess blood alcohol content and the same sentence range for driving while suspended - a restriction that had been put in place between her first and second arrests that night.
And she had already lost her job.
In a brief statement, Givealittle confirmed that McWilliams had resigned from the board for the popular crowdfunding website ahead of her sentencing.
“The board had earlier provided Ms McWilliams an extended leave of absence to undertake the programmes mandated by the court,” the statement said.
In New Zealand, the legal limit for driving is 50 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood and anything over 80 milligrams of alcohol results in a criminal case and court appearance. On both occasions, McWilliams was recorded as having a blood alcohol level of 258.
“Anyone driving at that level, especially the second time when erratic driving occurred, obviously was of risk to the public,” Community Magistrate Terry Bourke said today, adding that she was so intoxicated she would have known she shouldn’t be driving even before her first arrest.
Bourke ordered concurrent sentences of nine months’ community supervision, a 28-day ban from driving, a zero-alcohol licence after that with an alcohol interlock device on her vehicle and several hundred dollars in court fees. It reflected a rehabilitative sentence rather than a punitive one, the magistrate said.
“I think it’s important you get your life back on track as much as possible,” he said, noting that police didn’t object to the outcome. “I take it from that they accept the unusual circumstances you found yourself in at that time.”
Defence lawyer Nick Leader said his client had been going through trauma at the time and was undergoing steps to address it when she fell from grace.
“Regrettably, she wasn’t at the place she wanted to be,” he explained, adding that she’s continued to proactively take steps to make sure such a setback doesn’t happen again.
The judge agreed, refusing to elaborate in open court about the trauma but expressing “great confidence” such offending wouldn’t re-occur.
“A number of traumatic circumstances arose,” he said. “The anniversary of one has triggered this uncharacteristic episode of drink-driving.”
Court documents state McWilliams was behind the wheel of her white Tesla in Hamilton when she was pulled over the first time at 7.06pm.
“The defendant stated that after drinking she decided to drive home to Auckland but stopped at the Flagstaff shops carpark on River Rd and decided to sleep the night in her car,” the agreed summary of facts for her case states.
She was released from custody at about 9pm, according to the agreed summary of facts for her second set of charges. During the processing, she was suspended from driving for 28 days due to her level of intoxication.
At 12.17am, she was stopped again after police observed erratic driving.
“In explanation, the defendant stated that she had got an Uber ride back to her car and was driving to get some food,” court documents state. “She stated that she had consumed a bottle of cider from the supermarket whilst she was waiting for her car to charge.”
Craig Kapitan is an Auckland-based journalist covering courts and justice. He joined the Herald in 2021 and has reported on courts since 2002 in three newsrooms in the US and New Zealand.
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