Woman Who Slapped Cop Gets Plenty Of Jail Time To Quit Smoking

Sacramento, CA – You read about Etta Lopez, the woman so desperate to quit smoking she went to the extreme measures of assaulting a police officer, right? She got her wish.

Etta Me Lopez, 31, slapped a California sheriff’s deputy this week because she wanted to go to jail. It was the only thing she could think of that would help her finally kick the habit. So she waited outside the Sacramento County jail for several hours on Tuesday. When Deputy Matt Campoy emerged, Lopez suddenly slapped him and hit him in the arm as he tried to restrain her.

“I stepped to the left, she stepped to my left,” Campoy recalled. “I stepped to the right, she stepped to my right. I stepped to the left again and she suddenly stepped into me and slapped my face.”

Lopez pleaded non contest to a misdemeanor charge of battery against a peace officer (because she wanted to go to jail, remember) and was sentenced to 63 days in jail.

Campoy told the Sacramento Bee that Lopez only slapped him so she’d be sent to jail because there’s no tobacco allowed.

“She knew that the only way to quit smoking was to go to jail because they don’t allow tobacco in the jail,” said Campoy. “She waited all day for a deputy to come out because she knew if she assaulted a deputy she would go to jail and be inside long enough to quit her smoking habit.”

Campoy also joked about the surreal attack.

“I’ve been telling everybody that I have a new Irish name: Nick O’Derm,” Campoy said.

Though nicotine works its way out of the body between 24 and 48 hours, the body goes into intense withdrawal afterwards (sometimes called “smokers flu” for its flu-like symptoms) for several days or weeks. It usually takes months for your body to completely get over its nicotine cravings, and your mind, much longer. But like they say, everybody is different.

Do you think that 63 days is enough time for Etta Lopez to quit smoking? Sound off!

[Image via: Africa Studio, Shutterstock]