WEST RICHLAND, WA
A husband and wife are each facing drunk driving charges after she was arrested while trying to follow the West Richland patrol car carrying him to the county jail.
The 32-year-old husband was the first to be placed in handcuffs when police saw him driving a truck in a closed area near a construction site off Keene Road.
He claimed to have been “watching the fights,” and had three or four drinks about an hour before the traffic stop.
One hour later, his 31-year-old wife was taken into custody outside the West Richland Police Department, trying to track down her husband.
She denied being behind the wheel while intoxicated, reminding police that it was her husband who’d been arrested earlier on suspicion of DUI.
When an officer pointed out that she had driven herself to the police station and smelled like alcohol with “slightly slurred” speech, she simply replied “Oh,” court documents said.
The woman said she had about three drinks that night along with medications, adding that she was pregnant and “having a bad week,” documents said.
Both have since been released from the Benton County jail.
The criminal complaint for the woman, written by Officer Daniel Flores, says she works for the Pasco School District.
“It isn’t wise to jump in a car and chase the police who just arrested your husband for DUI, when you have also been drinking alcohol,” West Richland police said in a Facebook post. “Please don’t drink and drive.”
The initial call came in just after 11 p.m. March 6 for a reckless driver in a construction field at Cardinal Peak Street.
The first officer arrived to see a pickup driving from the paved portion of Constance Avenue onto a gravel road. There have been several recent construction thefts in the area, so police wanted to stop the truck and find out what the driver was doing, court documents said.
The pickup drove a few blocks before the driver stopped for the flashing emergency lights. The driver explained that he “lived in the area and was just checking things out.” His wife was in the passenger seat at the time.
Documents show the couple live not far from central Richland.
The husband refused to do a voluntary field sobriety test or breathalyzer test. He was arrested based on his driving in a field and for smelling like intoxicants, and was cited for DUI and “wheels off the roadway.”
WIFE TRIED FOLLOWING POLICE
After the husband’s arrest and departure for jail, other officers remained at the scene for some time while wrapping up their investigation. Documents state his truck was left parked off the road.
It’s not clear how or when his wife got to her own vehicle, a Jeep, but Flores wrote that he noticed the woman following him when he pulled away from the scene. The officer then briefly stopped along the road to type something on his car’s computer and saw the Jeep parking behind him.
Flores approached the Jeep and asked the woman if she needed something. When she said she wanted to follow her husband to the jail, Flores had to inform her that he’d already left in another patrol car.
The Jeep “made a quick U-turn and sped off onto Keene Road eastbound,” court documents said.
Flores suspected she was driving under the influence, so he alerted his sergeant about what just happened.
Sgt. Jared Kelly noticed the Jeep ahead of him on Keene Road, and saw it make a U-turn and speed past him at over 50 mph, documents said. The driver made a third U-turn and pulled up behind Kelly’s car to follow him onto Van Giesen Street.
Kelly pulled over onto a side street so Officer Flores and the woman in the Jeep could both pass, then told his officer he was going to watch for probable cause to stop her for DUI. However, aside from making a wide turn at one point on Bombing Range Road, the Jeep stayed within the lane of travel.
The Jeep continued to follow Flores’ car closely before turning on a side street. Both Kelly and Flores thought she had left the area, until they returned to the police station and saw the woman standing in the parking lot “waving her arms.”
The woman was questioned about her alleged drinking and driving, and told police she’d been advised not to take a field sobriety test after a previous DUI stop. She agreed to do a breathalyzer test, which came in above the legal limit of 0.08%, and was arrested, document said.