Drunk-driving charges against an upstate New York woman have been dismissed based on an unusual defense: Her body is a brewery.
The woman was arrested while driving with a blood-alcohol level more than four times the legal limit. She then discovered she has a rare condition called “auto-brewery syndrome,” in which her digestive system converts ordinary food into alcohol, her lawyer Joseph Marusak said in interviews this week.
A town judge in the Buffalo suburb of Hamburg dismissed the drunk-driving charges this month after Marusak presented a doctor’s research showing the woman had the previously undiagnosed condition in which high levels of yeast in her intestines ferment high-carbohydrate foods into alcohol.
The rare condition, also known as gut fermentation syndrome, was first documented in the 1970s in Japan, and both medical and legal experts in the US say it is being raised more frequently in drunk-driving cases as it is becomes more known.
“At first glance, it seems like a get-out-of-jail-free card, but it’s not that easy,” George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley said. “Courts tend to be skeptical of such claims. You have to be able to document the syndrome through recognized testing.”
The condition was first documented in the US by Barbara Cordell of Panola College in Texas, who published a case study in 2013 of a 61-year-old man who had been experiencing episodes of debilitating drunkenness without drinking liquor.
Marusak contacted Cordell for help with his client, who insisted she had not had more than three drinks in the six hours before she was pulled over for erratic driving on Oct. 11, 2014. The woman was charged with driving while intoxicated when a Breathalyzer test estimated her blood-alcohol content to be 0.33 percent.
Cordell referred Marusak to Columbus, Ohio-based physician Anup Kanodia, who eventually diagnosed the woman with auto-brewery syndrome and prescribed a low-carbohydrate diet that brought the situation under control.
During the long wait for an appointment, Marusak arranged to have two nurses and a physician’s assistant monitor his client for a day to document she drank no alcohol, and to take several blood samples for testing.
“At the end of the day, she had a blood-alcohol content of .36 without drinking any alcoholic beverages,” Marusak said.
He said the woman also bought a Breathalyzer and blew into it every night for 18 days, registering about 0.2 every time.
While people in cases described by Cordell sought help because they felt drunk and did not know why, Marusak said that was not true of his client.
“She had no idea she had this condition. Never felt tipsy. Nothing,” he said.
Marusak submitted medical evidence of his client’s condition to the judge, who dismissed the drunk-driving charges on Dec. 9.
Erie County Assistant District Attorney Christopher Belling said the matter is being reviewed and his office does not comment on open cases.
Marusak declined to name the woman, citing medical confidentiality laws. He said the case has been sealed since the charges were dropped.
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