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SALT LAKE CITY — KUTV news anchor Shauna Lake apologized Tuesday on the first day she returned on the air since her DUI arrest last week.
The longtime TV newswoman fought tears as she acknowledged that she hurt viewers, her two sons and her colleagues.
“I drank alcohol after I got off work and then I chose to get behind the wheel of my car,” she said, explaining to viewers that she was arrested. "I’m ashamed and humiliated by my decision. It was selfish. I could have hurt someone else or myself.”
She added: "What I did was wrong, and I just hope that over time, night by night, you can learn to trust me again."
Lake said the experience has been "the most painful and challenging of my life," but she said it may become the most defining experience of her life.
"I also know that some of you are very angry and disappointed in me, and you have every right to be," Lake said during the station's 5 p.m. newscast.
Earlier Tuesday, Lake pleaded not guilty in Murray Justice Court to DUI, a class B misdemeanor, and other charges.
Her attorney Jim Bradshaw said a thorough review of evidence has yet to be completed and it's too early to draw conclusions about what happened the night she was pulled over by a trooper.
Lake, referred to in court documents as Shauna Lake Marshall, 46, is also charged with using license plates registered to another vehicle, a class C misdemeanor; having an open container of alcohol on the highway, a class C misdemeanor; and no current registration, an infraction.
She was pulled over by a Utah Highway Patrol trooper about 12:20 a.m. on May 10 on I-215 near 1200 East. Her license plate had been "canceled," the arresting trooper wrote in a report, and was registered to a black Land Rover, not a white one like she was driving.
The trooper reported smelling "the strong odor of an alcoholic beverage coming from inside the vehicle," according to the report, and said the driver's eyes were red and bloodshot.
After allegedly failing a field sobriety test, Lake was arrested, booked into the Salt Lake County Jail and released an hour later.
KUTV declined to speak about her status and said it doesn't comment on personnel issues.
