Former PSU student sentenced in DUI case

BELLEFONTE — A former Penn State student was sentenced to serve six months of intermediate punishment — 20 days of which under house arrest — for driving drunk when she hit a pedestrian in 2006 on East College Avenue in State College.

Katherine A. Applegate, 24, was given permission to serve her sentence under the supervision of her home county of Allegheny.

Applegate was acquitted in March of a felony charge related to leaving the scene of that accident along East College Avenue, and another felony charge of aggravated assault by vehicle while DUI was dismissed at a preliminary hearing in 2006. An accident reconstruction report showed Applegate couldn’t have avoided the crash even if she had been sober, because the intoxicated then-freshman she hit stumbled in front of her vehicle.

The crash happened at about 1:45 a.m. Dec. 6, 2006, as Applegate was driving her roommate’s vehicle to their home in Lemont, according to testimony at trial. The pedestrian, Michael Drauch, who also was intoxicated that night, was critically injured by survived the crash.