Real Housewives Gina Kirschenheiter Pleads Guilty To DUI

NEWPORT BEACH, CA — It will be 20-hours of community service and three years of informal probation for the "Real Housewives of Orange County" cast member Gina Kirschenheiter who pleaded guilty to DUI on Tuesday. She shared of the event that she was "embarrassed" and has awoken to the dangers of driving while intoxicated.

"Bad choices have bad consequences," she wrote following her Jan. 30 arrest in Rancho Santa Margarita. "

"(My choices) are magnified (because) I chose to share my life with you on a very public stage," she said. "I wasn't 'unlucky' I made a conscious decision to do something epic-ally stupid. One time is one time too many. I am awake now. I can promise this will never be me again."

Defense attorney Michael Fell said he was "moved at how Ms. Kirschenheiter has addressed this incident from the outset and her desire to continue to educate the public on the dangers of DUI."

Kirschenheiter was also ordered to participate in a six-month first- offender alcohol program and was ordered to pay $250 to a victim witness emergency fund.

She was charged with two misdemeanor DUI counts that were filed Feb. 15: driving under the influence of alcohol and driving with a blood-alcohol level above the legal limit of .08, Fell said.

According to the criminal complaint, the 35-year-old mother of three's blood-alcohol level was .20, well above the legal limit of .08,

Meanwhile, Kirschenheiter is seeking a restraining order against her estranged husband, Matthew Kirschenheiter, who was arrested last month on suspicion of felony corporal injury of a spouse.
The two met in college in New York, married in May 2010, and moved to Coto de Caza several years ago with their three young children.

They separated in March of last year and she filed for divorce in April.

A hearing on the restraining order is set for July 16 in Family Law Court at the Lamoreaux Justice Center in Orange.

City News Service, with Patch Editor Ashley Ludwig contributing.