Chicago-Area Woman Pulled Over, Charged With DUI On Way To Court-Ordered DUI Class
Cops arrested a woman in suburban Chicago on Monday evening for DUI as she was headed to a court-ordered DUI class for a prior arrest that occurred in January 2016.
Riverside, Illinois, officers pulled over the motorist for allegedly driving 45 miles per hour in a 25-mph zone.
At the traffic stop, cops allegedly smelled alcohol and pot coming from the car. The suspect, “who police said could barely stand, failed field sobriety tests. Her blood-alcohol count was 0.196, more than twice the legal limit, police said. She admitted drinking beer and smoking marijuana while driving,” the Chicago Tribune reported.
Inside the vehicle, officers allegedly found an open beer can and and 18 grams of marijuana.
The suspect, identified by multiple media outlets as Cicero resident Vanessa Vargas, 23, is charged with driving under the influence of alcohol, driving under the influence of drugs, driving with open alcohol in a car, and possession of cannabis, NBC Chicago detailed. She told police that she was on her way to Chicago to attend a court-mandated counseling session that resulted from a plea bargain in the prior DUI arrest in a neighboring town.
Vargas was operating the vehicle with a valid driver’s license, according to police, because the suspension from that past arrest had ended.
Cicero woman arrested for DUI while en route to DUI counseling session, police said. https://t.co/lMpc4I5QPY pic.twitter.com/M13cz9Mfiw
— Chicago Tribune (@chicagotribune) August 1, 2017
Commenting on the arrest, Riverside Police Chief Tom Weitzel remarked that “She had no reservations about driving drunk, speeding and smoking cannabis on her way to a court-mandated DUI counseling session. When the officer questioned her about this she said, well I guess I learned my lesson.”
Vargas was apparently released after posting a $100 bond.
Separately, the Inquisitr previously chronicled other unusual law enforcement encounters of this nature. For example, a New Jersey man, then 53, had an alleged DMV DWI when he reportedly showed up to take his driver’s license road test and the test examiner detected a strong odor of alcohol. In another instance, a 73-year-old alleged drunk motorist in Colorado behind the wheel of an SUV hit a pedestrian after clipping a food truck and then crashed into a church where she was to attend an AA meeting. She was charged with DUI and vehicular assault. In Florida, a man who allegedly had too much to drink decided to “drive it off” rather than sleep it off according to what he told police. He was cited for DUI and speeding. An Oregon man wearing a “drunk as sh*t” T-shirt found himself getting arrested for alleged DUI in part because his girlfriend reportedly didn’t know how to operate a manual transmission vehicle. He wound up running into a parked car and allegedly choking his girlfriend when she tried to grab the keys. Authorities charged him with DUI and several other offenses.
[Featured Image by Virote Chuenwiset/Shutterstock]
