Aug. 19--DURHAM -- A judge sentenced a woman to 30 days in jail for driving while impaired, poking a police officer in the eye and slapping an emergency medical technician in the face.
Victoria Denise Scott, 52, of Raleigh, pleaded guilty Monday in Durham County Criminal Superior Court to driving while impaired, assault on a law enforcement officer and assault on an emergency medical technician for a series of incidents that occurred Oct. 22.
The first incident occurred on N.C.55 near the Interstate 40 interchange when Scott, who was turning to get on the ramp to I-40, crashed into the driver's side door of a car driven by another woman. When Durham Police Officer Timothy Duke arrived at the scene, he immediately smelled alcohol on her breath, and she told him she had had one beer, said Assistant District Attorney Josephine Kerr.
After performing field sobriety tests, he put her in handcuffs and placed her in the back of his police car. The slightly built woman was able to slip out of the cuffs, so he cuffed her again tighter.
Again she was able to slip out of the cuffs and began waiving her arms around and swinging at Duke.
"She was getting mean. She was getting hostile," Duke told Superior Court Judge Carl Fox.
The woman then poked Duke in the eye, irritating it and causing it to turn red, Kerr said.
Another officer brought a smaller pair of handcuffs, and they handcuffed her and took her to the Durham Police Department. Once there, she began stomping her feet and complaining loudly as Duke, whose eye was slightly injured, periodically looked over at her.
Duke quoted her as saying to him, "I'm going to charge you with sexual assault because you're winking at me."
"My eye was actually watering at the time," Duke told Fox.
Because Scott refused to take a breath test, EMT Warren Swanson was called in to take a blood sample to be tested for alcohol content, but she resisted that, too, Kerr said.
"She then used her right hand to slap him across the face," Kerr said. "His glasses flew across the room and it caused a laceration to his left cheek, and the blood started coming down his face where he was hit."
Scott's blood-alcohol level was 0.17, Kerr said.
Scott had two prior DWI arrests in 1996.
For the two assaults, Fox sentenced her to four months to 14 months in prison, but he suspended the sentence and placed her on supervised probation for 30 months.
He ordered her to pay court costs and a $250 fine, get an alcohol and substance abuse evaluation and undergo treatment if recommend, and not drink or possess any alcohol.
He also ordered her to serve 30 days in jail sometime during the next 18 months of her probation.
For the driving while impaired charge, he gave her an additional sentence of 180 days in prison, but he suspended that and placed her on probation for 18 months. She must surrender her driver's license and not operate a motor vehicle until her privilege to drive is restored.
Scott apologized to Duke and Swanson.
Copyright 2013 - The Herald-Sun, Durham, N.C.
