A Maui woman once accused of killing her identical twin sister after driving through a rock retaining wall and over a 200-foot cliff on the Hana Highway in May was arrested again in upstate New York for alleged drunken driving.
New York state police said Alexandria Duval, 37, nearly hit a police investigator’s vehicle before she was pulled over in the Village of Stamford in Delaware County on Monday afternoon.
Police said Duval was driving with a Hawaii driver’s license and had a blood alcohol content of 0.26, more than three times the legal limit.
Police said officers saw Duval drive too closely to another vehicle, nearly hit a police investigator’s vehicle and cross the centerline of State Route 23 at about
4:25 p.m.
Duval was arraigned in the Town of Stamford court for aggravated drunken driving and other traffic violations. She was taken to the Delaware County jail in lieu of $5,000 cash bail or $10,000 property bond and is scheduled to return to court on Tuesday.
Duval and her twin, Anastasia, ran what were once the hottest yoga studios in the upscale Palm Beach, Fla., area.
But after a reality TV show project on their Twin Power Yoga studios fell through, their glamorous, high-profile life crashed around them in a series of failed businesses, drunken escapades and arrests that culminated in Alexandria Duval being charged with second-degree murder for the death of her sister in the May 29 crash.
On June 8, after a preliminary hearing, Maui District Judge Blaine Kobayashi ruled that there was no probable cause to support the charge. Duval was released and flew to New York for her sister’s funeral.
In court documents, a witness reported the sisters were arguing before the crash and the vehicle’s air bag control module shows the driver didn’t try to brake before the Ford Explorer accelerated, made a hard left turn and crashed through a wall before plunging over the cliff.
Duval’s lawyer, Todd Eddins, said the incident was a tragic accident.
Anastasia Duval was pronounced dead at the scene. Alexandria was hospitalized in critical condition.
The sisters, then known as Alison and Ana Dadow, declared bankruptcy in 2014 and left Palm Beach, leaving behind unpaid employees and hundreds of clients with unrefunded memberships.
The sisters moved to Utah and opened a yoga studio in the high-end ski town of Park City. They had several run-ins with the police during the two years they lived in the state, and faced charges for drunken driving, public intoxication and leaving the scene of an accident.
In January 2014, they were kicked out of a restaurant when their drinking got out of hand, according to police. Officers said the twins fought with each other and with police who arrived after their car slid into a ditch.
The twins legally changed their names in Utah in 2014 to write a book together, according to court documents. Both women filed for bankruptcy at about the same time and reported about $150,000 in debts each.
Looking for a new start, they moved to Maui in December and planned to open yoga studios, according to Eddins. But they were soon charged with disorderly conduct and terroristic threatening over a Christmas Eve incident.
——-
Star-Advertiser reporter Michael Tsai and the Associated Press contributed to this story.