North Pole hit-and-run driver convicted again

FAIRBANKS (AP) -- A North Pole woman on probation for assault charges stemming from a drunk driving hit-and-run case pleaded no contest Friday to a second drunk-driving arrest.

Carolyn Rock, 38, pleaded no contest to a count of felony driving while intoxicated. Rock faces a $5,000 fine, a three-year driver's license revocation, and a jail term that could range from 120 days to more than two years. She will be sentenced June 22.

Rock was arrested Nov. 24 after police responded to a report of a reckless driver on the Richardson Highway. She blew a breath alcohol reading of .18, above the .10 legal limit.

At the time of her arrest, Rock was on probation and awaiting the results of an appeal of her conviction for an April 1999 hit-and-run accident in which a 10-year-old girl on a bicycle suffered a concussion.

State troopers arrested Rock in connection with the incident at her North Pole home. She claimed she had not begun drinking until after the accident.

Rock was convicted of third-degree assault, drunken driving and leaving the scene of an injury accident. In February 2000 she was sentenced to 18 months in prison.

She appealed and is awaiting a ruling.

The latest charge is a felony because Rock has been convicted of driving while intoxicated or for refusing a breath test at least three times in the last five years. Her first drunken-driving conviction came in December 1998.