Philly nun's trial: How effective is 'Ambien defense'?
A Philadelphia nun on trial for alleged drunk driving and crashing into an auto-repair shop in South Jersey has invoked a relatively new defense: sleep-driving after taking a sleeping pill.
A Philadelphia nun on trial for alleged drunk driving and crashing into an auto-repair shop in South Jersey has invoked a relatively new defense: sleep-driving after taking a sleeping pill.
Lawyers for Sister Kimberly Miller say she experienced an adverse reaction to Ambien, losing four hours of her life after taking the drug, drinking a glass of Mont LaSalle altar wine, and going to bed.
When Miller - who had consumed two glasses of wine earlier in the night at a book fair - woke up, she testified, she was at a Washington Township police station, 20 miles from St. Veronica's, her North Philadelphia convent.
Miller was charged with driving under the influence after crashing her Chevrolet Impala into a Meineke auto shop on Route 42 in Turnersville last Nov. 7. Police said her blood alcohol level was 0.16, twice the legal definition of drunken driving in New Jersey.
During a nearly six-hour proceeding in Municipal Court on Wednesday, defense lawyers and an expert witness argued the "Ambien defense," contending Miller had no recollection of the incident. "She didn't know what she was doing," said Jeffrey Lindy, one of two Philadelphia lawyers handling her case.
For about a decade, lawyers across the country have used the strategy to argue that their clients were not at fault for crashes and other incidents, including some violent crimes. A study of six sleep-driving DUI cases, outlined in a 2013 journal article, found that three defendants settled for lesser charges, two were found guilty, and one was acquitted.
In one of the earliest Ambien defense cases, which occurred in New Jersey, an appeals judge overturned a Somerset County woman's drunken-driving conviction in 2009, finding that she had no way to know sleep-driving was a potential side effect of the drug.
"She arose without having any idea whatsoever that she got in the car and had an accident," her attorney, Richard Uslan, said in an interview Thursday. "The major thrust in that case was the fact she had no warning that sleep-driving would occur."
Uslan, a former prosecutor, said he had argued at least a dozen Ambien defense cases. He has three cases pending - two in North Jersey, and one in Kentucky in which a man who took the drug sleep-drove to a Walmart store, bought a pack of cigarettes, a lighter, and a pack of gum, and got into an accident after leaving the store, he said.
The North Jersey incident happened in September 2006, six months before Ambien and other makers of insomnia drugs were ordered to include a warning that the pills could leave patients susceptible to sleep-driving.
Since then, it has become clear that the sleep aids can impair driving, though the degree to which they affect legal culpability has not. Miller testified Wednesday that she was unaware of the risks, and that there had been no warning from her doctor or pharmacist.
In May 2013, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration began recommending that those who take extended-release sleep medications should avoid driving the next day. A recent study found that for drivers age 70 and older, Ambien may lead to a higher risk of crashes.
Miller is 41. A high school theology teacher and librarian and a member of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary order, she testified that she had a history of sleepwalking that began as a child as a result of post-traumatic stress.
"These episodes are not predictable," Fran Gengo, clinical pharmacologist and professor at the DENT Neurologic Institute in Batavia, N.Y., testified Wednesday at Miller's trial. "Patients can take it for years without side effects."
It is difficult to tell precisely how often sleep-driving incidents happen. One study says in its abstract that they are "statistically rare events, but due to the billions of doses prescribed each year may still result in numerous DUI-related arrests and accidents."
In an eight-page report submitted in Miller's case, Gengo said Miller's behavior clearly fits the pattern of an adverse reaction to Ambien. Besides sleep-driving, activities reported caused by the drug can include sleepwalking, eating, talking on the phone, and having sex, Gengo wrote.
"Patients who engage in driving while in the midst one of these episodes will typically be driving without a preplanned destination or purpose, will be dressed in somewhat unusual fashion, and have no recollection of how they arrived at wherever they stopped," Gengo wrote. "All of these are the case for Sister Miller."
Last month, a North Carolina man was acquitted of shooting up his home, assaulting his wife, and firing at police after jurors determined he was under the influence of the drug and did not know what he was doing.
"We actually had a couple of people who were on the jury and had taken Ambien (not during the trial)," lawyer Mike Greene told North Carolina Lawyers Weekly. "I think they were aware that sometimes people can do certain things when they take Ambien that are crazy."
Kerry Kennedy, a daughter of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, was found not guilty of drugged driving in 2014 after a July 2012 crash into a tractor-trailer on a New York highway while under the influence of Ambien. She said she mistakenly took the drug.
But the approach does not always work. In New York last year, a man accused of killing the mother of his son argued that Ambien made him violent and unable to remember fatally strangling her. He was found guilty and sentenced to 20 years to life.
Miller has another advantage in the trial. The judge tossed the blood-alcohol results because police had not continuously monitored her for 20 minutes before administering the Breathalyzer. The judge is expected to rule Wednesday.
Police witnesses said that they smelled alcohol on Miller's breath, that she had bloodshot and watery eyes, and that she failed two field sobriety tests and refused to take a third. A corked, half-empty bottle of wine was found in her car, police said.
If Miller is convicted as a first-time offender, her driving privileges could be suspended in New Jersey, and she could be fined up to $900 and sentenced to 30 days in jail.
Uslan, who is not involved in Miller's case, says the defense made a strong argument, although he said it may have been weakened by her admission that she consumed wine, too. The same adverse reaction can occur without alcohol, he said.
"People's behavior is very bizarre on this medication," Uslan said. "It's a valid defense, because it would be difficult to prove the criminal intent to commit the offense."
Miller, a faculty member at Little Flower High School for Girls in Philadelphia, was placed on administrative leave by the Philadelphia Archdiocese. Lindy said Miller hoped to get her job back. "She loves teaching," he said.
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