The Broward County judge who oversees misdemeanor drug cases was arrested Thursday night after police said she was driving drunk when she crashed into a stopped car, briefly knocking the other driver unconscious and sending him to the hospital with a neck injury.

Judge Gisele Pollack, 56, sobbed and screamed that she didn't want to go to jail, an arrest report said.

An officer smelled alcohol in Pollack's car and on her breath, noticed an empty plastic cup whose contents had spilled on her front passenger seat, and found alcoholic beverages in the trunk of the car, the officer wrote in his report.

Pollack, 56, was taken into custody on charges of DUI, DUI with damage to property or persons and failure to use due care. Pollack initially offered to have her blood drawn, then refused, according to the arrest report. She also declined to submit to a breath test.

Attorneys say Pollack's long struggle with alcoholism has given her a sympathetic perspective on the misdemeanor drug court she has overseen since its inception in 2005.

"I just hope that people treat her with the same level of respect and compassion that she shows the defendants who appear before her," said her defense lawyer, Eric Schwartzreich. "People want to hold judges to a higher standard. I understand that. But we should also hold her to the standard of a human being."

She was booked into jail shortly after 1:30 a.m. Friday. She was released later in the morning.

According to the arrest report, the accident took place in the 5500 block of West Sunrise Boulevard in Plantation shortly before 10:50 p.m. Thursday. Pollack told police she was on her way home from Gainesville.

The driver of the other car, Dylan Razack, 20, of White Plains, N.Y., was unconscious for a few minutes, according to the report. The report did not provide an update of his condition.

Attempts to reach Razack by phone Friday were unsuccessful.

Pollack took a voluntary leave of absence last month as reports circulated that she arrived for work drunk for the second time in four months.

"The chief judge [Peter Weinstein] has decided that Judge Pollack, who is currently on leave, shall continue to be suspended from any judicial assignments until further notice," said Broward Court Administration spokeswoman Meredith Bush.

Officially, Weinstein does not have the authority to suspend a judge — only the Judicial Qualifications Commission can do that. But he can decide not to give her an assignment if she were to come back to work.

Schwartzreich said Pollack will not return to work before her case and its fallout are resolved.

The decisive action against Pollack stands in contrast to how Weinstein handled the March DUI arrest of Broward Circuit Judge Cynthia Imperato in Palm Beach County. Weinstein changed Imperato's assignment from the criminal division to foreclosures, but allowed her to continue working as a judge.

In Imperato's case, the allegations against her did not involve injury to another person or her conduct on the bench.

The fate of Pollack's job will likely end up in the hands of the Judicial Qualifications Commission, which has the authority to recommend a judge's removal from office. The Florida Supreme Court makes the final call.

"She very well could lose her job, at least temporarily," said Broward Public Defender Howard Finkelstein, a friend of Pollack's with his own public history of substance abuse. "Most people are going to conclude that she's not fit to sit on the bench currently. This is a situation where it's reflecting on her doing her job, and there's a duty to protect the public and probably protect the judge from herself."

Pollack never made any secret of her battle with alcoholism, and referred to it during her first successful campaign for office in 2004.

On Dec. 17, Pollack's bizarre behavior on the bench led to suspicions that she had suffered a relapse. She voluntarily took a short leave of absence and checked herself into an outpatient treatment program in Weston.

Schwartzreich, who advised Pollack in the wake of the December incident, said at the time that the judge had suffered recent emotional turmoil.

"She's had some severe personal tragedy in her life," Schwartzreich said in December. "Her mother recently passed away, and they were very close. It's been really devastating for her."

He added that she has an adult son dealing with a severe medical issue, contributing to Pollack's depression.

She returned to the bench in January, then went on her current leave of absence in April.

"It is rare to see someone in this kind of a rapid descent," Finkelstein said. "Anyone who knows her knows that she is one of the most caring, compassionate people around. To see this happen to her is heartbreaking."

The Broward State Attorney's Office intends to ask the governor's office to appoint a prosecutor from another county to handle the case, according to spokesman Ron Ishoy. Weinstein's office is also likely to ask the Florida Supreme Court to have the case assigned to a judge from another county.

Misdemeanor drug court has been handled by judges on a rotating basis, Bush said.

raolmeda@tribune.com, 954-356-4457, Twitter @SSCourts