June 22
No leg to stand on
A deputy on patrol on Alisal Road approaching Mission Drive stopped at an intersection. He heard a car horn and observed a vehicle that had been traveling westbound on Mission Drive stop abruptly at the intersection, and a red car had pulled in front of the oncoming vehicle without using its blinker. The deputy pulled the car over on Mission Drive. The driver, 26, of Solvang admitted she cut a car off and said she was driving from a friend’s home to a house in Santa Ynez. She slurred and smelled of alcohol. She initially said she had half a glass of wine, but after a preliminary roadside sobriety test, she admitted she had a glass of wine and four mixed drinks. During the roadside sobriety test, she was unable to place her right foot in front of her left foot and nearly stumbled. After the deputy asked her if she could perform the “one-leg stand,” she began to cry and said she wanted to go home because she just had an abortion. A Breathalyzer test showed she blew a .208 BAC. The deputy arrested her and took her to Santa Ynez Cottage Hospital for medical clearance before booking her into county jail. A search of her car yielded a 750-ml bottle of wine that was a quarter full.
June 24
A jail-time story
Deputies were dispatched to the Chumash Casino on a report of an intoxicated subject. Deputies arrived and security personnel were interviewing the subject, 41, of Carpinteria. They spoke with another subject, 42, who had been wandering around aimlessly and appeared to be disoriented. She was also unkempt and her face was lax, her eyes droopy and her upper body slouched. She also had white substance at the edges of her nostrils. The woman claimed she sees a doctor on a regular basis for a slip-and-fall accident she suffered in 2007 that caused injuries to her legs, feet, hips, shoulders and neck. She said she was prescribed Oxycodone, Adderall, Xanax and other medications. She said she’d recently taken the drugs after the deputy noted that her pulse was 56 beats per minute. A computer check showed she was on active county probation that included drug testing. He arrested her and she agreed to provide a urine test. She claimed her boyfriend had injected her with the prescribed Oxycodone two days earlier at a park in Santa Ynez. She claimed the substance at the edges of her nose was facial cleaner. The deputy spoke with her boyfriend, who said they both used meth two days before at a park in Ventura. He said he smoked and injected .5 grams of meth and that she injected meth. Both were booked into county jail. The woman was later caught defying orders by urinating in her cell and could not take a urine test. At booking, deputies learned she’d been previously arrested for drugs.
June 25
Not taken lightly
Deputies responded to the Chumash Casino regarding a patron with a possible felony warrant. They arrived and met with an investigator, who stated that the man was detained because he was believed to be wanted by the Lompoc Police Department. They also confirmed that the man had two active warrants for his arrest. The deputies arrested the man. He asked them to give his money and other personal property to his girlfriend. Deputies spoke with his girlfriend, 45, of Lompoc. They immediately noticed she appeared under the influence: She was grinding her teeth and spoke quickly. Her pupils did not respond to changing lighting conditions. When a deputy asked her to close her eyes and tilt her head back, she displayed eyelid tremors and her pupils did not react to light. The woman said she’d taken two prescribed painkillers at 10 a.m. and two more at 3 p.m. for a toothache. She denied she used illegal drugs but admitted she had a problem with drugs in the past. Believing she was under the influence, the deputy arrested her and booked her into county jail.
June 26
Designer drug
At 11:16 p.m. a deputy on routine patrol at the intersection of Edison Street and Numancia Drive saw a station wagon parked in the corner of the parking lot in front of Harrison Ace Hardware. He noted the vehicle was parked sideways in a handicap stall and was still running. He then saw a man standing in the shadows of the building nearby. He contacted him and asked if he needed help. The man said he was charging his cell phone into an external electrical socket. The deputy asked why he didn’t do it in his vehicle and the man claimed he didn’t have an adapter and needed to call his wife because he had stopped at the Chumash Casino prior to completing his trip to Los Angeles from San Luis Obispo. A computer check showed the man’s license had been suspended for failure to pay fines regarding a ticket. The deputy noted that the man rocked from side to side, closed his eyes, tilted his head back, and had pronounced eyelid tremors. He asked the man if he uses drugs and the man said no but he’d recently snorted “a decent-size line of glass cleaner” he bought from a smoke shop in Mission Viejo. A search of the man’s vehicle turned up a small, clear plastic bag with white powder inside. The deputy noted the writing “Bubbles Glass Cleaner” on the containers. A sample test showed it was not amphetamines or cocaine. The deputy found five more containers in the driver’s-side door pocket. The man said he purchased the extra containers of “bath salts” at the request of his friends. The deputy arrested him and took him to the Solvang station for a urine test. The man tested negative for a controlled substance. The deputy asked the man how he felt after taking bath salts. The man said he’d taken methamphetamine in the past and that the effects of the salts weren’t as euphoric, but still had a stimulating effect and lasted much longer, causing insomnia. The deputy cited and released the man because he cooperated and his drug test was negative.
June 27
Double trouble
At 2:40 a.m., a deputy driving eastbound on Highway 246 saw a sedan with its lights off parked in a bike path. He passed the vehicle and turned around to investigate but saw it pull onto the highway westbound. The vehicle appeared to speed up and when the deputy got closer, he clocked it at 70 mph. The vehicle then crossed the double-yellow line into the opposite lane to pass another vehicle. The deputy activated his lights and continued to follow the sedan until it yielded on the north side of the roadway. When the deputy approached the driver’s side of the vehicle, he noticed the driver was putting on a T-shirt, and he immediately smelled the odor of alcohol from the passenger compartment. The man, who appeared anxious and slurred his speech, said he and his passenger had been consuming beer and had traveled from Oxnard to the Chumash Casino in the passenger’s girlfriend’s car. The passenger said his identification was in the vehicle, but a search turned up nothing. The deputy called the passenger’s girlfriend, and she said she didn’t know her boyfriend was in possession of her car. She was angry and accused the boyfriend of stealing her vehicle. The deputy transported the driver to the casino per his request. It was not documented in the report what action was taken against the passenger.
June 28
For real?
At 6:16 p.m. deputies responded to Santa Ynez Cottage Hospital on a report of an intoxicated subject in the emergency room disturbing staff. Upon arrival, they met with the doctor, who informed them that the man was brought to the emergency room unresponsive. While staff attended to the man, he became belligerent and attempted to pull an EKG monitor from the wall. The doctor noted that the man had a .376 BAC when he arrived. They were prepared to discharge him, but they thought he was a danger to himself and contacted authorities. The deputy spoke with the man and he responded, “Am I going to jail?” The man said there was no one who could care for him. The deputy then informed him that he was in Santa Ynez, and the man asked if Santa Ynez was a real place. Believing he was unable to care for his safety and the safety of others, the deputy arrested him and booked him into county jail. A computer check showed he had a $15,000 warrant from Bexar County Sheriff’s Office in Texas for his arrest. The man said he suffered a heart attack one month earlier and complained of ulcers. But he said he hadn’t informed hospital staff of his conditions.