Deborah Pauly, who aims to get elected to the state Assembly out of the 68th District in 2016, was recently arrested for allegedly driving under the influence in Anaheim, where police claim she made anti-Muslim remarks while getting popped.
Thought not the type of behavior many want in an elected representative, trashing Islam and an embarrassing DUI incident are not foreign to the former Villa Park city councilwoman. In 2011, she attained national notoriety for telling a rabid crowd that tried unsuccessfully to shut down a Muslim charity event in Yorba Linda, “I know quite a few Marines who would be very happy to help these terrorists to an early meeting in paradise.”
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Deborah Pauly's Drunken Night Out!
She also called the charity event that drew men, women and children “pure, unadulterated evil.”
Amid a national shitstorm, Pauly later claimed she was only referring to a couple speakers who had made controversial remarks in the past as being the terrorists. But that did not stop hundreds of people from later protesting outside Villa Park City Hall, with many carrying signs accusing Pauly of being Islamaphobic.
The following year, Pauly was being driven by her husband James in a Porshe when he tried to evade a police DUI checkpoint in Orange but instead crashed into a curb, leading to his arrest for drunken driving. (Gustavo busted out the story back then!)
James tried to slip off his handcuffs, and Deborah was rebuffed when she asked to drive the Porsche home because officers thought she appeared to be drunk and was slurring her words. A blood test determined Mr. Pauly had a blood-alcohol content level of .17–more than twice the legal California limit. He eventually pleaded guilty to misdemeanor DUI, was placed on three years probation and ordered to pay $390 in fines.
Now comes the report from Adam Elmahrek of Voice of OC on Deborah Pauly allegedly driving a blue Porsche 911 into a parked Mazda pickup truck before 1:30 a.m. on Sept. 12. She was given a field sobriety test, officers determined she was intoxicated, and she was booked at the Anaheim police station, Lt. Eric Trapp told Elmahrek.
But the far more fascinating detail of the arrest coverage was Pauly at first denying she made anti-Islamic remarks while being arrested before acknowledging what she said could have been construed that way. She noted it was the early morning hours after the anniversary of 9/11.
(Rather than re-report the whole thing, I encourage you to click through to Elmahrek's story so you can digest his delicious exchange with Ms. Pauly.)
Trapp told Voice of OC the recorded video from the officer's body camera is not currently public record. Maybe after voters in Anaheim Hills, Orange, Villa Park, Tustin, Irvine and Lake Forest elect Pauly their assemblywoman, Madame “Hot Mess” can author a bill to change that.
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OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.