An Elizabethton woman is facing multiple charges after police said she drove while intoxicated with her 8-year-old child in the vehicle.
Sabrina Widner, 26, 151 Crestview Drive, was arrested Tuesday morning by Elizabethton Police Department Sgt. Shane Darling and charged with driving under the influence, reckless endangerment and simple possession of Schedule III drugs.
Darling said he saw a gold Nissan crossing the fog line, then the center line on Broad Street near Food City. As the vehicle approached the Broad Street bridge, “the vehicle was straddling the fog line, nearly struck the curb and then the bridge,” he reported.
Darling said he turned on his emergency lights to stop the vehicle, which continued on to McDonald’s before coming to a stop. After making contact with the driver, who was identified as Widner, Darling said she acted distraught.
“(Widner) explained that her driving behavior was caused because she was reading a text message,” he wrote in the report.
Darling said he then had Widner get out of the vehicle to complete a series of field sobriety tests, and noticed she was “unsteady” on her feet. He said he also saw two medicine bottles in the door of the vehicle, which Widner reportedly said were methadone that she had a prescription for.
According to the report, Widner nearly fell twice before starting the field sobriety tests. She also had difficulty following directions for the test, according to Darling, and her performance of it was very poor, consistent with the behavior of an intoxicated driver.
“Widner was placed under arrest and charged with driving under the influence,” Darling wrote. “She also had her 8-year-old child in the vehicle and is subsequently being charged with reckless endangerment.”
During an inventory of the vehicle, Darling said that a small baggy of several round blue pills was found in the glove compartment. The pills were identified as clonazapem, a Schedule III drug.
“Widner did not present a prescription for these pills, and they were not in a proper container,” Darling wrote in the report. “She is subsequently being charged with simple possession of Schedule III.”
Widner is scheduled to appear in General Sessions Court on Sept. 23.