NEW CASTLE, Ind. — An Indianapolis woman with a suspended license was arrested on her birthday this week after police said she drove with a kid in the car to go get her nails done while at nearly 3x the legal alcohol limit.
According to the Henry County Sheriff’s Office, deputies arrested 47-year-old Stacy C. Booher of Indianapolis on Monday on several felony charges related to a drunk driving incident in New Castle.
HCSO said 911 dispatch began receiving calls around 7 p.m. that a dark-colored pickup truck was driving erratically near SR 38 and SR 38, reportedly almost hitting a curb and crossing traffic lines.
Eventually, one deputy saw a black 2001 Dodge Ram stopping past a clearly marked stop line and driving left of a center line and pulled the car over.
Court documents show that the deputy had to knock on the driver’s side door to get the attention of the driver, later identified as Booher. The deputy said he immediately recognized Booher from a prior incident and remembered she had a suspended driver’s license.
After confirming that Booher had a prior driving conviction, the deputy said she became “extremely argumentative” and provided a passport instead of a driver’s license.
“I asked Mrs. Booher why she was driving and she angrily said ‘Because I have to!’ Mrs. Booher later told me that she was on her way to get her nails done,” an arrest report reads.
HCSO said the deputy then saw a young juvenile sitting in the front passenger’s seat of Booher’s car and asked the woman if someone could come pick up the child. Booher then reportedly began calling someone to pick up the child but was confused about why.
When the deputy explained that Booher was being arrested for driving with a suspended license, she and the person on the phone with her reportedly began to plead for him “to have compassion” because it was Booher’s birthday.
“Booher continued to want to debate that she cannot afford to bond out and that it’s her birthday and she has been trying really hard to get her license back,” the deputy said. “While talking with Mrs. Booher, kept detecting very faint odor commonly associated with an alcoholic beverage and noticed that Mrs. Booher had glassy eyes.”
After the suspect allegedly fell out of the open door of her car, both Booher and the child were taken to the Henry County Sheriff’s Office. While Booher was initially angry and then sad, the deputy noted that she became “chipper” and “bubbly” once she was loaded into a squad car.
Once at the sheriff’s office, Booher allegedly told deputies that she was swerving her car while driving due to her ADHD. She also later reportedly admitted that she had a “couple glasses of wine” and a “very large top-shelf margarita” prior to driving.
“When describing the margarita, Mrs. Booher held her hands approximately 10 inches apart,” a police report reads.
Booher was then given a total of three field sobriety tests, according to HCSO, including the walk-and-turn, one-leg and horizontal gaze tests. She failed all three tests, deputies said.
The suspect then gave permission to have a chemical breath test taken to test her alcohol levels. After several tests, it was determined that Booher’s samples had a result of 0.208, which is over double the legal limit of 0.08.
Booher was then booked into the Henry County Jail on the following charges:
- Operating a vehicle while intoxicated with a prior conviction (level 6 felony)
- Operating a vehicle while intoxicated with a passenger under 18 (level 6 felony)
- Operating a vehicle while intoxicated (class A misdemeanor)
- Driving while suspended (class A misdemeanor)
- Public intoxication (class B misdemeanor)
Online court records show that an initial hearing for Booher is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. on Nov. 14 in Henry County Court.
