A 48-year-old woman who couldn’t pass a field sobriety test was charged with driving while under the influence, although she couldn’t or wouldn’t submit to a urine test and police did not request a breath test, Darien police said.
According to the police report, she said she had a small amount of alcohol earlier the night she was arrested. Police found a potent liquid with the active ingredient of marijuana on her and the strong odor of marijuana when they spoke with her. But with no tests done, they don’t know what substance caused her to be unable to complete the field sobriety test.
Police described the incident and her arrest with this account (including accusations not proven in court):
At 12:30 a.m., a police officer on patrol was driving east on the Post Road when the officer saw a vehicle going south on West Norwalk Road with its hazard lights blinking.
The officer turned around in a nearby parking lot to follow the vehicle, which took a U-turn and started driving north on West Norwalk Road. The officer followed the vehicle, then saw it stop on the traveling part of the roadway, with its flashers still on.
With the patrol cars lights now activated, the officer stopped and approached the vehicle. It had all four windows fully or partially rolled down, despite the cold temperature. The officer smelled the strong odor of marijuana coming from the vehicle. The driver, a Bronx, N.Y. resident, was on a speaker phone with a male and said she was looking for a house on West Avenue in Norwalk.
A second police officer arrived and asked the driver why her car smelled of marijuana. The woman replied, “Excuse me?” and didn’t appear to know what the officer was talking about.
The woman appeared disoriented, and when asked for her identification, she moved slowly and couldn’t find any identification. She said at that point that she’d had a small quantity of alcohol that night.
She was asked to perform field sobriety tests and couldn’t pass them. She admitted that she had about three grams of marijuana in the vehicle and said it was for personal use.
Police searched the vehicle and found a black electronic smoking device in a pocket of her backpack along with a black and white makeup bag containing rolling papers, four vaporizer cartridges, two empty plastic bags and two containers with residue that was or was like hash oil, 6.4 grams of a green leafy substance that appeared to be marijuana, and a small grinder.
The woman said she had smoked some “honey oil,” a potent form of THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) extract. THC is “is the chemical responsible for most of marijuana’s psychological effects,” according to the Live Science website.
Police found that the woman’s New York state driver’s license was currently suspended. Her vehicle, a rental, had scrapes on the right side that seemed fresh. The woman said she had just picked it up at an airport.
The woman was charged with driving while under the influence, possession of less than half an ounce of marijuana, possession of drug paraphernalia and operating a motor vehicle without a driver’s license.
At Darien Police Headquarters, the woman was asked to submit to a urine test (which might have shown how much marijuana — or perhaps some other drug — was in her system) but the woman said she was unable to produce a urine sample. That’s considered the same as a refusal to submit to a test and results in stiffer driving restrictions from the state Department of Motor Vehicles — although the woman already didn’t have a right to drive in Connecticut if her driver’s license was already suspended.
The woman was initially held on $500 bond and, if bonded out, is scheduled to appear in state Superior Court in Stamford on Oct. 24.