. >> reporter: officers found marlese paulo driving under the influence. the jury found her not guilty. the reason, legal necessity. her public defender says she had to drive drunk because she had to get away from a dangerous situation. we spoke to paulo by phone. >> i was scared. i did only what i could think to do and that was to get away from him. >> reporter: she and her boyfriend had traveled from her home in oroville to san francisco for a 49ers game. after getting kicked out of the strip club, the boyfriend became belligerent back at their hotel. with a black eye and bloody scalp, paulo fled in her car. >> he approached the car and started banging on it i think. she had no choice but to drive away to save her life. i think if she had waited for 911 to get there. she might have been dead. >> reporter: the san francisco public defenders says paulo chose the lesser of two evils. >> and the law allows a person who is themselves a victim of a crime to in certain circumstances commit a crime in order to get out of harm's way. and that's what happened here

. >> reporter: officers found marlese paulo driving under the influence.ut the jury found her not guilty. the reason, legal necessity. her public defender says she had to drive drunk because she had to get away from a dangerous situation. we spoke to paulo by phone. >> i was scared. i did only what i could think to do and that was to get away from him. >> reporter: she and her boyfriend had traveled from her home in oroville to san francisco for a 49ers game. after getting kicked out of the strip club, the boyfriend became belligerent back at their hotel. with a black eye and bloody scalp, paulo fled in her car. >> he approached the car and started banging on it i think. she had no choice but to drive away to save her life. i think if she had waited for 911 to get there. she might have been dead. >> reporter: the san francisco public defenders says paulo chose the lesser of two evils. >> and the law allows a person who is themselves a victim of a crime to in certain circumstances commit a crime in order to get out of harm's way. and that's what happened he