Associated Press, June 29, 2000

Activist Pleads Guilty in DWI Crash

ELLENSBURG, Wash. (AP) - The founder of a national organization that promotes moderate drinking for alcoholics pleaded guilty Thursday to driving drunk and causing a wreck that killed two people.

Audrey Kishline, 43, wept as she pleaded guilty to two counts of vehicular homicide in the deaths of Richard Davis and his 12-year-old daughter, LaShell.

Police said Kishline was driving the wrong way down Interstate 90 on March 25 when she smashed head-on into Davis' car. Kishline's blood-alcohol level was more than three times the legal limit.

She could get up to life in prison at sentencing Aug. 11.

Kishline in 1993 started Moderation Management, a group that calls itself an alternative to Alcoholics Anonymous. It allows problem drinkers to cut down on drinking rather than quitting altogether, as AA insists.

Members of the volunteer-run groups go through a nine-step program that allows nine drinks per week for women and 14 for men. The group considers drinking learned and not a disease.

Since the accident, Kishline has disavowed the movement and removed herself as spokeswoman, said her lawyer, John Crowley. Crowley said Kishline is being treated for alcoholism.

In January, even before the wreck, she announced that she was joining AA. Crowley said that Kishline had realized that Moderation Management "is nothing but alcoholics covering up their problem."