The Criminal Beat: Updates on KMSP reporter's drunken arrest

Everybody loves a good media smear story and we can't get enough of yesterday's news of KMSP-TV's Johanna Beth McDonough's Halloween shenanigans.

It seems the bleary-eyed FOX 9 crime reporter is taking her beat too seriously. Anything for a good story, right?

McDonough, 40, was arrested in the driveway of her Minnetonka home after a state trooper followed her there. The victim, Andy Lange, called 911 saying McDonough rear-ended his car with her Saab on I-394 near Highway 169 and took off. He was on his way to church.

WCCO scores an interview:

"Completely out of the blue, completely out of the blue. Just bam was the next thing. I was just shocked...She came past me on the right side and I saw the front of her Saab was really mangled. You could tell it had just been in an accident. She kind of slowed down but kept going. A little swerving, but kept going. Didn't pull over. That's when I called 911," ...

"I feel bad for her..."Things could have been completely different."

If the hit and run part isn't juicy enough, it gets better. Citing a report written by State Patrol Sgt. Randy Anderson, The Pioneer Press adds:

"The defendant kept falling and using her vehicle to keep herself upright...On two occasions, the defendant used Trooper Miles to keep her balance."

McDonough has been suspended while the Fox News brass review the incident. She is currently on four years' probation stemming from an October 2007 guilty plea to a third-degree driving while impaired charge.

McDonough has been charged with two counts of driving while impaired, leaving the scene of an accident and not having a valid driver's license.She failed a field sobriety test and finally agreed to take a test at 2:20 a.m. — an hour and a half after the accident. Her blood-alcohol concentration was 0.24. The limit in MInnesota is .08.