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Former county attorney pleads guilty to drunken driving

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March 13th, 2019 by Ric Hanson

OSCEOLA, Iowa (AP) — A former southern Iowa county attorney has pleaded guilty to drunken driving. Clarke County court records say 43-year-old Michelle Rivera, of Osceola, entered the plea last week after making a deal with prosecutors. She’d been arrested Dec. 14. Her plea agreement calls for 365 days in jail with all but two days suspended, a $1,250 fine and two years of probation. Prosecutors would drop another charge in return. The agreement isn’t binding on the judge. Her sentencing is scheduled for March 22.

Rivera lost her re-election bid in November after she was arrested in October on suspicion of being drunk on the job in a Clarke County courtroom. A sheriff’s deputy said in a criminal complaint that he noticed Rivera “slurring her words and stumbling on her feet” in the Osceola courtroom. She was charged with public intoxication. Rivera eventually pleaded guilty and was fined $65.