Crime & Safety

Drugs Involved in 2 of 3 Recent OWI Stops

In one case, a tipsy Greendale woman swerved to miss a small Christmas tree that had rolled off the curb and ended up hitting a much more substantial tree planted firmly in the ground.

Among three recent arrests of drivers on suspicion of operating while intoxicated, one was based on drug impairment alone, one for alcohol but noted that the driver also admitted smoking marijuana, and one involved alcohol alone. All were reported as first offenses.

According to the reports:

At 4:11 a.m. Sunday, a 28-year-old Milwaukee woman was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving, first offense, after she was pulled over in the 10000 block of West North Avenue.

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A patrol officer had seen her waiting at a traffic light at Mayfair and Blue Mound roads, and noticed that she waited through a green light while he was in view, as if she didn't wish him to observe her driving behavior. But her reluctance to do so was what gave her away.

The officer ran her plates and found she was suspended, then followed and saw her drifting out of her lane a number of times.

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When he stopped her, the officer could immediately smell alcohol when she spoke to him, and he saw that she had a passenger who was passed out and did not wake up during the interview.

The driver failed field sobriety tests and blew a .14 blood alcohol concentration on a breath test. 

Drug use suspected in rear-end collision

At 11:02 a.m. Saturday, a 22-year-old Milwaukee man was arrested on suspicion of driving while intoxicated under the influence of drugs, first offense, after he caused a collision in the 10800 block of West Capitol Drive.

He told officers investigating the crash that he had briefly looked away from the roadway and had rear-ended the car in front of him when he failed to notice it stopping for a red light.

The officer noted that the man’s eyes looked glassy, his pupils were dilated and his eyelids droopy.

There was “less than a pinch” of marijuana left in a jar found in the man’s car.

He performed very poorly on field sobriety tests, being barely able to stand upright or follow instructions. He submitted to a blood draw at Wisconsin Heart Hospital for evidence of drug use.

Woman hits one tree to avoid another

At 3:13 a.m. Jan. 13, a 37-year-old Greendale woman was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving, first offense, as well as for possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia, after she crashed into a tree in the 100 block of Glenview Avenue in Wauwatosa.

A Wisconsin State Patrol officer came upon her car stalled in traffic and inoperable shortly after the collision, and told Wauwatosa officers that the woman had already admitted she’d been drinking.

Tosa police found a large, fresh wound on a tree about 30 yards away, considerable fresh damage to the front of the car, and a small Christmas tree, about 3 feet tall, lying in the street just behind her car.

The suspect told officers she was driving home from Gee Willikers, a bar in Riverwest in Milwaukee, when she saw something in the road — a Christmas tree, she thought — and swerved to avoid it. She didn't remember hitting the street tree.

She had trouble completing all the steps of a sobriety test and blew a .11 blood alcohol concentration on a breath test. When her car was searched, officers found a pipe, a digital scale and several containers of marijuana. She admitted having smoked marijuana as well as having been drinking that night.


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