Nov. 5--AYER -- Sitting in her wheelchair in court, a 71-year-old Pepperell woman was ordered to spend 14 days at an in-patient treatment center after she pleaded guilty to her second drunken-driving charge.

Lilliam M. Wamboldt was charged after an accident on July 27, when her vehicle plowed into several parked cars and she became trapped in her overturned vehicle.

While prosecutors argued Wamboldt should receive a suspended 60-day jail sentence with two years probation, Ayer District Court Judge Michael Brooks agreed with defense attorney Ernest Hyde that the elderly woman should be placed on two years of straight probation, attend an in-patient treatment center and then an after-care program, along with paying $600 in court fees and fines.

The in-patient treatment is preferred, Hyde said, because Wamboldt's license is suspended so transportation to a program is an issue.

According to court documents, Pepperell police responded to a report of an accident on Nashua Road (Route 111) near Countryside Auto Sales on July 27. They found Wamboldt, who uses a wheelchair, trapped inside her overturned vehicle.

Police allege Wamboldt was traveling south when she started to skid and crashed into several parked cars, flipping one, and then her own car went airborne landing on its roof trapping her in the vehicle.

After Wamboldt was placed in an ambulance, police tried to ask her questions. According to court documents, when her oxygen mask was removed,

police said they could smell alcohol on her breath. She allegedly admitted to drinking four beers, court documents state.

Wamboldt has one prior conviction for drunken driving out of Ayer District Court in 1995. That case was continued without a finding for one year.

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