Charges: Woman Caught Driving 98 MPH While Drunk With Open Bottles

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- A 28-year-old Inver Grove Heights woman is accused of drunk driving while having alcohol in her vehicle in the southeast metro back in early March, according to charges filed Monday in Dakota County Court.

Mayra Guadalupe Almendariz was charged with two counts of third-degree driving while impaired, under the influence of alcohol and .08 or more, in connection with the March 3 incident.

According to the charges, a Dakota County sheriff's deputy was sitting stationary at about 3:42 a.m. on March 3 at the intersection of Coates Blvd. and 200th Street, between Hastings and Hampton, when he spotted a vehicle approaching. The vehicle was clocked at 98 miles per hour in a 65 zone.

The deputy stopped the vehicle and observed open beer bottles behind the driver's seat. The driver was identified as Almendariz, and the complaint states the deputy could smell alcohol on her. She told officers she was traveling 65 miles per hour, had consumed two beers and a passenger in the vehicle had been drinking the bottles in the car.

The complaint states the deputy asked Almendariz to step out of the vehicle for field sobriety tests and detected she was impaired. A preliminary breath test showed she had a blood alcohol content of .124, above the .08 legal limit for driving in Minnesota.

Almendariz was taken to the Dakota County Jail to take a breath test, where she registered a blood alcohol content of .11 at 5:02 a.m. She has a previous DUI conviction in Ramsey County back in September of 2009.

If convicted on the current charges, which are both gross misdemeanors, Almendariz faces up to two years in prison and $6,000 in fines.