WPD: Motel 6 Crash, DUI Arrest Jan. 19

WARWICK, RI — On Jan. 19, Officer Nicholas DeMarco, called to 20 Jefferson Blvd., for a red Ford pickup Motel 6 Crash in the parking lot, charging a Warwick woman with DUI.

DeMarco arrived to find a pickup parked next to a wooden fence, part of which was “destroyed,” according to DeMarco’s report. There was also a dumpster, pushed at an angle, several feet from the debris.

Standing next to the truck was a woman, Tanessa Miller, 48, of 20 Jefferson Blvd., Apt. 117, Warwick, RI, the driver.

Miller told DeMarco that she had been had been backing up in the lot when the brakes failed. She said she had been returning from a nearby Dunkin Donuts.

When the officer asked for her license, registration and insurance, Miller replied that she had none.

The owner of the motel told DeMarco that he had been inside when he heard the Motel 6 Crash and stepped outside to find a woman, Miller still in the car, which was still running. When he confronted her about the crash, she apologized, he said, according to the report.

Miller’s boyfriend parked the car after the crash, according to the report. Miller denied having anything to drink prior to the crash, but she admitted to smoking marijuana, a “blunt,” earlier.

DeMarco observed Miller’s eyes were bloodshot and watery, and also that her breath smelled of alcohol as she spoke. He invited her to perform sobriety tests, during which she demonstrate a lack of smooth pursuit in her vision, missed heel-to-toe steps and used her arms for balance during a walk and turn test, and also put her foot down and used her arms to balance during a one-leg-stand test.

DeMarco transported Miller to Warwick Police Headquarters, 99 Veterans Memorial Drive, Warwick, RI where she refused to consent to a breath test of her blood alcohol content.

DeMarco charged Miller with DUI, blood alcohol unknown, first offense, and cited her for refusing the test, first offense.