LAKE FOREST – A small-business owner who is running for City Council was convicted last year of misdemeanor drunken driving after getting into a crash en route to Lake Forest’s Autumn Harvest Festival with her daughter in the car.

Liz Miller, 48, also has two other misdemeanor DUI convictions stemming from 2012 arrests, court records recently reviewed by the Register show. Two of the cases were in Riverside County.

Miller said she has accepted responsibility for her actions.

“It was an extremely challenging time in my life for personal reasons. It’s not an excuse, but that was my coping mechanism at the time,” she said.

Miller, who is one of eight candidates running for three open council seats in Tuesday’s election, told the Register that she at first had reservations about seeking office this year because of her past and did not reveal her DUIs to anyone but close family and friends.

The convictions led to jail time and a suspended license. In the Orange County case, she also pleaded guilty to child abuse and endangerment.

On Oct. 20, 2012, while taking her daughter to the annual Halloween event at Heritage Hill Historical Park, she struck a vehicle stopped at a red light at Lake Forest Drive and Pittsford, according to police. No one was injured.

Two tests taken at the scene showed she had a blood-alcohol content of 0.35 percent and 0.36 percent, more than four times the legal limit, according to a police report.

That arrest came just weeks after she was arrested twice in Riverside County, on Sept. 26 and Oct. 8, also on suspicion of drunken driving, court records show.

In the Orange County case, she pleaded guilty on April 22, 2013, to drunken driving, child abuse and endangerment, and driving on a suspended license. Court records show Miller was ordered to spend 90 days in jail, pay $690 in fines and restitution, spend 18 months in a multiple-offender alcohol program, attend a child abuser’s treatment program and a Mothers Against Drunk Driving victims’ impact panel.

On April 29, 2013, she was convicted of misdemeanor charges of drunken driving in both cases in Riverside County. She was ordered to serve 330 days in jail, attend alcohol abuse programs, install an ignition interlock device, wear an ankle bracelet, serve 58 days in a work release program, pay victim restitution and stop consuming alcohol.

Miller said she no longer drinks alcohol and is now focused “on my children and my faith.” She said she hopes voters will look past what she calls the worst period of her life.

“I paid the price and accepted the consequences,” Miller said. “I’ve completely changed my outlook and my life and my choices since that day.”

Contact the writer: 949-492-0752 or sdecrescenzo@ocregister.com