A 58-year-old New York woman was taken into custody on the evening of Oct. 25 after officers in Niagara County determined that she was driving her SUV while under the influence of alcohol. Officers say that the woman’s speech was slurred, her breath smelled of alcohol and a half empty bottle of tequila was visible on the floor of her Chevrolet Equinox. In additions to a charge of driving while intoxicated, the woman is facing counts of drinking while behind the wheel and refusing a breath test.
Officers claim that the woman’s vehicle was being driven erratically before they pulled it over in Niagara Falls at approximately 7:30 p.m. The woman is said to have told officers that she was returning to her Cheektowaga home after shopping at a nearby mall, but reports indicate that the woman was heading toward the outlets in question at the time of the traffic stop. The officers also say that the woman was naked from the waist down when she stepped out of her vehicle to perform a field sobriety test.
After being taken into custody on drunk driving charges, police say that the woman became abusive and started using profanity and hurling racial insults at one of the officers involved. She is also accused of spitting in the face of the officer tasked with taking her fingerprints.
Criminal suspects who have had few encounters with police officers sometimes react poorly because they view being taken into custody as the end of the road rather than the start of a long process. Defendants often find themselves in jail not due to the evidence police discover but because of the way they behaved or the admissions they made after being arrested. Experienced criminal defense attorneys will likely encourage their clients to be polite and cooperate with police but to answer no questions unless counsel is present.
