Right-wing pundit arrested for DUI after unsuccessfully trying to namedrop GOP sheriff

A former Phoenix-area prosecutor turned right-wing pundit tried to use her connection to the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office to get out of a DUI arrest, but failed because she was reportedly so intoxicated she couldn't even pronounce the sheriff's name right, The Arizona Republic reported on Monday.

According to the report, 54-year-old Rachel Alexander was arrested on December 21 after attending a party with GOP officials, posing for a selfie with Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen, whom she proclaimed would be "our next REAL Arizona Attorney General."

Shortly after, she was arrested in Scottsdale with a blood alcohol content of 0.23, around three times the legal limit to drive. The case has been winding its way through the state courts ever since.

But the article detailed her alleged drunken efforts to get help from the Republican sheriff of Maricopa County.

"Rachel Alexander twice asked a Scottsdale police officer about 'Sherry Jeridan' as the officer waited with her at a jail," said the report. "When he asked who she was talking about, Alexander appeared to lean into the name, the officer reported. 'I quickly realized she might be talking about the Maricopa County Sheriff Jerry Sheridan,' the officer reported. 'Rachel then asked me if he had ever talked to me about 'us entering the jail.''"

In an email to The Arizona Republic, Alexander proclaimed, "I always accept responsibility for my actions, and remember in the United States of America, no one is guilty until convicted in a court of law. It is time for the left and their agents who have ruined countless lives through lawfare and making our situations (sic) hell, to accept responsibility for all the destruction they have wrought and are wreaking in our society today."

Alexander previously served as an elections prosecutor for Maricopa County, but was suspended from practicing law in 2013 for her role in a scandal involving the county's head prosecutor filing politically motivated charges against county officials and judges.

These new details about Alexander's December arrest come amid the recent DUI arrest of Elliott Engen, a Republican Minnesota lawmaker and candidate for state auditor.