Ex-NU Regent Elizabeth O’Connor given 1-year sentence for felony DUI

O’Connor and her attorney had asked for probation and no jail time. 

She will lose her driver’s license for five years and likely face disciplinary action related to her law license.

Prosecutors charged O’Connor with a Class IIIA felony in late July 2025. After first pleading not guilty, she changed her plea to guilty in mid-May. She could have faced up to three years in prison.

“It’s five people that went through this crash,” Lux said, referring to the five passengers in the car O’Connor hit. “I won’t call it an accident, because it wasn’t. It was a crash. You caused it.”

Three of the passengers were young children who were returning home from Bible study with their grandparents. The grandmother, Latonda Johnson, sustained a broken back and pelvis.

After the crash, the children’s father, Johnson’s son-in-law, publicly urged O’Connor to resign.

Court records

The crash occurred about 8:30 p.m. May 21, 2025, in the Benson area of Omaha in O’Connor’s former NU Regents District 4 in eastern Douglas County. Prosecutors said tests showed she had a blood alcohol content of 0.321% after the crash. That’s four times the legal limit.

In court records, an investigator said police had found a half-empty bottle of Fireball Whisky in O’Connor’s vehicle, and she was showing symptoms of intoxication after the crash. A field sobriety test confirmed her condition, as did the blood analysis.

Lux said he works with veterans and assists with veterans treatment courts. Of those he’s seen at a blood alcohol level that high, Lux said, it’s “such a scary level” that could be potentially life-threatening, such as the person becoming unconscious or having alcohol poisoning.

“I don’t think this was a one-time kind of drinking experience,” Lux said.

Since the incident, Omaha City Prosecutor Kevin Slimp said, Johnson has made limited progress in physical therapy and needs help with daily activities. He said the crash cut short Johnson’s 25-year career with Omaha Public Schools, where she helped at-risk youth.

‘I was not coping’

For the first time publicly Monday, O’Connor detailed how she had been struggling in ways she had “not fully recognized or addressed” around the time of the crash. Her father, whom she described as her best friend, died in summer 2024 from pancreatic cancer. Shortly after his death, O’Connor gave birth to her daughter, who is now 2 years old.

Her attorney, Marcus Sladek, said O’Connor faced a diagnosis of severe postpartum depression and significant depressive episodes.

“I was not healthy, and I was not coping with these challenges in a healthy way,” O’Connor told Lux.

Voters reelected her to a second six-year term in November 2024. She resigned as a deputy county attorney in the Douglas County Attorney’s Office civil division days after prosecutors brought charges last summer. Because she had worked in that office, the case was handed off to Slimp’s office.

O’Connor said that once she saw how her actions hurt others, she knew she needed to begin “rebuilding” her life and that “things had gotten out of control.”

“Throughout my life, I have tried to be the kind of person who makes others feel welcome, comfortable and safe,” O’Connor told Lux. “And knowing that I did the exact opposite that day, and that I took away from someone else’s sense of safety, is something that I’m going to carry with me for the rest of my life.”

If she hadn’t resigned in early January as a regent, O’Connor could have faced impeachment this spring, the first such action in two decades.

The Nebraska Constitution bars felons from holding public office unless the Nebraska Board of Pardons restores the person’s civil rights. O’Connor would have been forced to leave office had she still been on the board. She also can’t vote until the completion of her full sentence.

There is a special election for the final four years of O’Connor’s elected term on Nov. 3.

‘Uncharacteristic outlier’

O’Connor and Sladek said she is about 15 months sober, attends weekly Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and meets with her sponsor. This is her first criminal offense, and she has continued to seek mental health and substance use counseling, according to Sladek and O’Connor.

Sladek said O’Connor’s risk of reoffending is low and probation would be well suited to help with rehabilitation and treatment. He described the incident as an “uncharacteristic outlier.”

“If there is a perfect or appropriate way to respond to such an offense in such a situation, I think Elizabeth has done that,” Sladek said.

Sladek also pointed to about 19 letters in support of O’Connor’s “true character.” He responded to a victim impact statement from Johnson, who attended the sentencing.

The attorney said that insurance will cover Johnson’s pain and that O’Connor — no matter the sentence — would not get a “slap on the hand.” Sladek said that was the phrase Johnson used in describing her frustrations to the court and weighing in on what she did not want to see occur.

Sladek also said O’Connor’s husband and daughter would experience “excessive hardship” if O’Connor faced jail time. Because O’Connor has been unemployed, Sladek said, her husband has been the primary breadwinner.

“I’m in no way suggesting that Elizabeth is a victim here. She’s not, and all of these consequences that I just cited are, frankly, foreseeable consequences that she understands she brought on herself,” Sladek said. “But she has waded through the treacherous waters that have followed this with silence and with grace, with remorse and with a single-minded focus on self-improvement.”

Sladek similarly sought to appeal to Lux that lawyers, including O’Connor, are in the business of helping others and solving their problems. However, Sladek said, it’s “far too easy” for attorneys to neglect their own problems and “far too difficult to ask for help for ourselves.” Sladek said O’Connor has learned that it’s OK to ask for help and speak up about what’s wrong.

“I know that it’s devastating to her that it took this to realize that, and more devastating to her that somebody else was [hurt] in the wake of that,” Sladek said.

‘I’m truly sorry’

Lux, a former prosecutor for Douglas County and the state, said he would have made a similar argument regarding O’Connor’s daughter. But he said three of the 19 letters for O’Connor referenced another victim and that he had to recognize O’Connor hurt another mother.

“A grandmother here, who can’t interact with her grandkids the same way that she could before you came into her life, by force,” Lux said.

Slimp said he was not opposed to probation but suggested it be for multiple years if so. He did suggest that if jail time was imposed, it be served up front. Because of the nature of the DUI, O’Connor served one night in jail when she was arrested in late July 2025, rather than longer while waiting for DUI test results, Slimp said.

Lux said he believed incarceration plus post-release supervision would be the “fairest way to achieve justice in this case.” He told O’Connor the sentence “takes into account the good things that you’ve done up to this point,” including her public service and path to recovery.

At the end of the hearing, the Douglas County sheriff’s deputies handcuffed O’Connor and took her into custody.

“I’m truly sorry for the harm and the pain that I caused through my actions,” O’Connor said earlier in the hearing. “What I can do now is continue taking responsibility, continue the work of recovery, of facing what I did, and continue proving through my actions that I’m never going to let this happen again.”

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