A Belleview woman was arrested on a drunk-driving charge after being pulled over last Sunday night with her 3-year-old son in the vehicle.
Christina Marie Craft, 37, of 10822 SE 45th Ave., was charged with DUI (second offense) with a passenger under the age of 18. She was previously convicted of DUI in 2006 in Prince William County, Virginia. She was also arrested in Marion County on a domestic battery charge in 2012.
At around 11 p.m. Sunday, Belleview Police officers were heading northbound in the 5100 block of SE Abshier Boulevard when they observed a black SUV with no tail lights and only a faint light emitting from the front of the vehicle. The officers caught up with the vehicle as it entered the left-turn lane at SE 110th Street, according to the police report.
The vehicle did not signal for the lane change even though there was traffic behind, and it stopped with its front and rear tires beyond the white stop bar. When the light turned green, the vehicle didn’t proceed for several seconds before turning onto SE 110th Street, where it drifted into the right-hand lane, which quickly becomes a merge lane to go back into the left lane, the report said.
The officers initiated the traffic stop and several seconds passed before the vehicle activated its right turn signal and started to slow down. The vehicle exited the roadway and drove partially into a vacant field before coming to a stop, according to the report.
Officers made contact with Craft, who was the driver, and told her she was being stopped for driving without headlights and tail lights. Craft said her headlights were on, but an officer walked in front of the vehicle and observed only the white parking lights were active. The officer explained this to Craft, who turned on the windshield wipers in an attempt to turn on the headlights. Craft’s eyes were glassy and watery, her pupils were constricted and her face was flushed, the report said.
After being asked for her driver’s license, Craft opened her driver-side door and tried to get out of the vehicle. When told to stay in the car, she said she had to get her license from a bag in the back. Craft was allowed to retrieve her driver’s license but said she didn’t have her registration. She said her 3-year-old son was in the back seat and was scared, according to the report.
Asked if she had anything to drink that night, Craft said she had a couple of glasses of wine at her friend’s house. She asked if she could just get a ride home, but she agreed to participate in a series of field sobriety exercises, which she failed, the report said.
Craft was placed under arrest for DUI. She immediately asked if the officer was serious and begged to be let go. She again asked if she could just be driven home. Craft was put in handcuffs and placed in the back seat of the patrol car. She asked the officer to call a friend to pick up the child, but when the friend answered, she was speaking with a thick tongue and slurred speech, which indicated she was also intoxicated, according to the report.
Craft then told the officer to call the child’s biological father, but then started crying and yelling that the child’s father was a drug dealer and they were putting the boy in danger by calling him. The officer contacted the child’s father through Craft’s phone and requested he pick up the child, who had fallen asleep in his car seat. When the child’s father asked what happened, Craft started yelling and cursing at him through the phone, the report said.
An inventory of Craft’s car turned up a quarter-full, 750 ml bottle of Pinnacle Coconut Vodka. While being taken to the Marion County Jail, Craft continued to ask why she couldn’t just be given a ride home. She asked the officer if she was happy her child had been given to a drug dealer. Craft insisted she wasn’t drunk and hadn’t had a drink in two hours, and she said the officer made an illegal arrest and impound. She asked what was going to happen when she blew under the legal limit, according to the report.
At the jail, Craft provided a breath sample that came back with BAC readings of 0.116 and 0.116, yet she continued insisting she was below the legal limit. When told what the samples read, she stopped talking. After being read her Miranda rights, Craft refused to speak. She said since the officer refused to listen to her, she wasn’t going to listen to the officer. Craft again said the officer was putting her son in danger by giving him to his biological father, the report said.
In addition to the DUI charge, Craft received traffic citations for driving without headlights after dark and possession of an open container of alcohol. She was released from jail on Monday on $2,000 bond. No court information was available.