‘Real Housewives of Potomac' star to go before real judge for DUI sentencing

Washington Post

22-02-2025

On a recent episode of 'The Real Housewives of Potomac,' discussion turned to an absent character: Karen Huger. The Grande Dame of Potomac had gone off to alcohol rehab, and her fellow housewives debated how that would sit with a Maryland judge who will sentence her soon for something she did off-air last year: driving drunk and crashing her Maserati.
'Do I feel that she's going to rehab right now because she's trying to lessen her sentence? Absolutely,' Mia Thornton offered.
'I can't knock the hustle,' said Wendy Osefo. 'I would, too.'
'That is unfair,' countered Stacey Rusch, who advanced a different tack. 'Let's give her grace.'
Huger, 61, is back in Potomac and set to return to Montgomery County Circuit Court on Wednesday for sentencing following her convictions two months ago for drunken driving, failure to control her speed and other counts. That trial was widely followed, owing in large part to police body-camera evidence that was made public and showed a visibly intoxicated Huger stumbling at the scene, slurring her words and being taken to a police station.
The show has hardly shied away from the case and recently aired excerpts from the videos. 'Oh God,' Huger tells one of the officers, 'I'm lit.'
Huger could be sentenced to up to two years in jail, prosecutors said in court filings. In a reflection of Maryland's sentencing guidelines, though, they are seeking six months. Huger's attorney will seek a sentence that imposes no jail time but instead stresses rehabilitation. Huger is expected to speak at the hearing, to be held before veteran judge Terrence McGann.
A recent court filing by the attorney, David Martella, offers a preview of what they are both likely to tell McGann. That includes the profound impact the trial left on Huger, who during the proceedings sat silently as videos were played and witnesses spoke.
'She was shocked with embarrassment,' Martella wrote. 'She could not turn off the testimony or the body cameras. She could not get up and walk out of the room. … The trial was a wake-up call.'
The call led Huger to check herself into a 28-day stay at a treatment center in Florida to address three problems: alcohol abuse, overreliance on antidepressants and trauma dating back 42 years to when she was raped in college. Since coming home from the center, Martella wrote, Huger meets every morning with an Alcoholics Anonymous coffee group.
Prosecutor Jordan Kramer is poised to offer a different view. Her filings reveal that Huger had three alcohol-related traffic cases from 2006 to 2011, which yielded a guilty finding for driving while impaired and another for driving under the influence — neither resulting in jail time.
'The fact that Ms. Huger has repeatedly been given the benefit of another chance on three separate occasions demonstrates that she has not learned anything from her prior arrests,' Kramer wrote. 'In fact, it appears as if she has been emboldened.'
The prosecutor recounted the latest incident, when she swerved down a dark, narrow winding road. 'Ms. Huger is extremely lucky that neither she nor anyone else was seriously injured or even killed,' the prosecutor wrote.
And she criticized the timing of Huger's rehab — after the conviction — and her selection of a facility that offered spa services, chef-prepared meals, equine therapy and an organic recovery garden.
'The State is concerned that the program that Ms. Huger did choose to enroll in equates itself to a luxury resort experience,' Kramer wrote.
Huger grew up in Surry County, Virginia, and attended the University of Virginia for two years but withdrew after being raped by a fellow student, aspects of her life she has shared on the show. Huger started and managed a staffing company for two years, went on to marry a Maryland businessman and raised two kids as a stay-at-home mother. By 2016, and for its premiere season, 'The Real Housewives of Potomac' came calling.
And in Huger it had a fan favorite. Episodes followed her launches of a fragrance, La'Dame by Karen Huger, and a wig line, La'Dame by Karen Huger. The show chronicled her work with PAVE, a group that supports survivors of sexual violence. By spring 2024, she was rolling in her eighth straight season on the show.
The night of March 19, Huger had met a friend for dinner, where she drank champagne before driving home alone, according to court filings. Just before midnight, three miles from her house, Huger's car veered left onto the center median and ran over a pedestrian crossing sign. Then she veered right, across the road and onto a grassy area, where she crashed and hit another street sign. The car's front was crushed and its air bags deployed.
In short order police arrived and arrested her. Though their videos weren't made public at the time, news of the crash and her drunken-driving charge leaked out. Huger downplayed what happened.
'Last night I met a girlfriend for dinner, we talked and brought up some very emotionally sensitive topics,' she told TMZ. 'I was crying on my way home and saw a car heading right for me. I swerved to avoid the head-on collision, hit the divider and then a tree. I'm hurt, bruised up a bit, but so grateful I am alive!'
The statement didn't mention the drunken-driving citation. Seven months later, Huger told E! News: 'I'm waiting for my truth to come out.'
The truth two months later, as concluded by a Montgomery County jury, was that Huger was guilty of driving under the influence and other counts. Within two days, she was filmed for a future episode of 'The Real Housewives of Potomac.'
'Do you think that you may have an issue with alcohol?' she was asked.
'No. I'm not an alcoholic. Let's be clear,' Huger responded.
At the time, an overreliance on antidepression medication was still clouding her understanding of what happened, according to Martella.
The attorney said that Huger's impairment shown on the police videos resulted from a combination of alcohol and medication. Her exact alcohol level was never known because she refused to undergo a Breathalyzer. Jurors reached their verdict after watching the videos and hearing testimony from responding officers.
'She was hammered,' Sgt. Brett Trahan told them.
Beyond her sentence, Huger's return to the show remains both unclear and a subject of intense interest from viewers. She recently offered her preference, saying in a video piped into a recent episode that she wanted to dial back her character — no more Grande Dame. 'I plan to be coming back as Karen Huger only,' she said, 'because Karen is enough.'