The Las Cruces Sun-News has reported that a New Mexico woman told her special needs daughter to get behind the wheel of the car after she was pulled over on suspicion of driving drunk in December.
Reyna Guadalupe Quintana, 32, allegedly told her teenage daughter to jump into the driver’s seat of the minivan and pretend she had been driving all along.
Quintana was spotted swerving onto the shoulder and back over the center line by a New Mexico State Police officer, while going just 40 mph in a 55 mph zone.
The officer made the traffic stop after witnessing the swerving as well as the brake lights going on even though the driver was traveling at well under the speed limit.
He stated that once he approached the vehicle, he saw a young female behind the wheel of the car and got a strong whiff of alcohol from inside. He also identified that the girl’s 12-year-old sister was also in the minivan. When he questioned the teen, who it would late be determined has special needs, she admitted that her mother told her to get behind the wheel and pretend that she had been driving the whole time.
The officer noted that Quintana was slurring her speech and that her eyes were bloodshot. Her blood-alcohol content was determined to be nearly twice the legal limit at .14 though she told the officer the alcohol she consumed was “not that much.”
