By SUE SUCHYTA
Sunday Times Newspapers
RIVERVIEW — A 32-year-old Riverview woman who may have been trying to drown her sorrows was arrested the morning of March 23 for operating under the influence of liquor and for driving with a license that was suspended because of a prior drunken driving arrest.
A call was made to dispatch at 10:54 a.m. stating that a woman appeared to be slumped over the steering wheel of a black Kia Soul on Fordline Street between Georgia Avenue and Huntington Street.
A police officer found the woman in her car, blocking the roadway, but saw that she wasn’t unconscious. He made contact with her, and she said she was crying because of a bad breakup and had just left her father’s house.
The woman’s eyes were red and glossy, and her speech was slurred. She denied having had anything to drink earlier that day.
She identified herself with a voided Michigan identification card, and, when prompted, produced a temporary driving permit.
An inquiry then revealed an earlier drunken driving conviction, and an outstanding warrant from Michigan State Police in Brighton for driving under the influence of alcohol.
The woman failed multiple standardized field sobriety tests.
A preliminary breath test was administered, and the woman had a blood-alcohol content of 0.153, nearly twice the 0.08 limit for legally drunk in Michigan.
The woman was taken into custody, and her vehicle was impounded and towed. Her metal license plate was confiscated to be destroyed, and was replaced with a paper plate.
She refused to cooperate with further breath tests and did not consent to a blood draw, so a search warrant was obtained from a judge, and she was taken Corewell Health Hospital in Trenton for a blood draw. Afterward, she was returned to the police station and was held.