Co. Attorney: Woman Drove Drunk With 3 Kids, Crashed Into Pole
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- An Eden Prairie woman faces criminal charges after she was accused of hitting a light pole while driving drunk with three young children in tow.
The Dakota County Attorney's office says 28-year-old Sissy Marie Garcia was charged Wednesday with two counts of second-degree driving while impaired and one count of child endangerment.
The criminal complaint says police responded to a call just after midnight on Saturday about a vehicle that hit a light pole in the area of 80th Street East and Robert Trail South in Inver Grove Heights.
Garcia was sitting in the passenger seat of the car when an officer arrived, and she told them that someone else had been driving, but she was not sure who it was.
Authorities say three children – ages seven, one and three months – were also in the vehicle and were crying and visibly scared. The children's father eventually picked them up from the scene.
Garcia's speech was allegedly slurred when talking to the officer and her breath smelled strongly of alcohol.
She refused to exit the vehicle, and when an officer pulled her out, she dropped to her knees and refused to stand.
She admitted at the scene that she drove because she had no one else, but was uncooperative and eventually tried to walk away from the officer.
Garcia was taken into custody, where she refused to a take a breath test and kicked the officer in the shin after he wouldn't let her leave.
She has a prior conviction for driving while impaired in 2012.
Garcia could face up to three years in prison if convicted.
