By Rodney Ho on April 29, 2013 on his AJC Radio & TV Talk blog
Elle Duncan, an 11Alive traffic reporter, Atlanta Hawks sideline reporter and former V-103 jock, was arrested on a DUI charge early Sunday morning after a Hawks playoff game.
According to a brief report on 11Alive.com, there were no injuries. She was not on air this morning and the station "will be giving Elle the time she needs to deal with this personal incident."
A source told me she was partying at the Buckhead Bottle & Bistro.
UPDATE at 12:53 p.m. Monday, April 29: the Georgia State Patrol provided us with the police report.
At 1:47 a.m. Sunday, April 28, the arresting officer S. Collins observed a silver Mercedes driving at a "high rate of speed" southbound on Piedmont Road, according to the written report. The vehicle "passed me and began weaving in and out of traffic in a reckless manner. I caught up near to the Mercedes near the intersection of Main Street and observed the driver narrowly miss striking another vehicle."
He pulled her over. She was unable to find her license but she identified herself as Lauren Duncan, he wrote. (Lauren is Elle's real name.)
The offficer wrote that Duncan's "eye condition" was "watery" and "bloodshot," her behavior "polite" and "talkative "and her general appearance "nothing unusual." He also said she had "an odor of an alcoholic beverage coming from her mouth." She told him first she had drunk one beer prior to driving. He asked Duncan to take field sobriety tests and she consented.
He placed her under arrest for DUI and reckless driving and requested a breathalyzer test.
She took the test. The results read a .099, above the legal limit of 0.08.
While in the back seat of his patrol car, Duncan apologized for not being honest about her alcohol consumption. She told the officer she also drank hard liquor as well as beer prior to the encounter.
Duncan released a statement after the arrest:
"I am greatly embarrassed for my actions early Sunday morning. I have been reminded -- in a very difficult way - that any amount of alcohol can impair us. I take full responsibility for my actions. I apologize to my fans, our community, and my 11Alive family."
Duncan started her broadcast career with the 2 Live Stews on 790/The Zone in 2003 at age 20 and moved to Ryan Cameron's afternoon show on V-103 a year later. She helmed the mid-day show at V-103 for 18 months starting in 2009, then worked with Frank & Wandafor 10 months before going back to Cameron's show for eight more months. She left V-103 in late 2011, joining the NBC affiliate WXIA-TV as a morning traffic reporter last year.
Over the holidays, Duncan taped a public service announcement for 11Alive advising viewers not to drink and drive.
Last week, Deadline.com reported that Duncan had joined Atlanta-based HLN for newsmagazine pilot with Natasha Curry and Carlos Diaz that could potentially replace "Evening Express," which features Ryan Smith and Clark Howard.
Cameron, her former boss at V-103, sent his best wishes to her this morning about the DUI but didn't say her name.
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