Crime & Safety

Fence Post Stuck to Car Led to Drunken Woman's Arrest, Cops Say

Hopatcong resident spit and threatened officers, according to the police.

A Hopatcong woman was charged with DWI and leaving the scene of an accident Monday after she drove through a fence on Lakeside Boulevard, taking a piece of the fence that got stuck to the front of her car with her, according to police.

Alisha Rawlings, 26, was additionally charged with reckless driving, failure to report an accident, failure to maintain a lane, placing injurious substance on a highway and disorderly conduct, according to Hopatcong Police Lt. Thomas Kmetz. 

Police were called to Lakeside Boulevard around 11:30 p.m. Monday on a report that a truck had crashed through the fence. Pieces of the fence were shattered around the roadway, Kmetz said.

As an officer continued driving on Lakeside Boulevard to search for the car, he was told by another officer that pieces of a Ford were also found. Surrounding towns were told about the car Hopatcong Police were looking for, Kmetz said. Police then received a call from Landing about a car seeming to match the description provided by police at the 7-Eleven.

When police arrived, the car was partially parked on the sidewalk and between two parking spaces, Kmetz said. A wooden fence post about 8 feet long was stuck across the front of the car, according to Kmetz, and the front tire of the car was flat with fluids leaking from the car. No one was inside the car at the time, Kmetz said.

Officers went inside the store and found Rawlings with an employee, Kmetz said. When asked about the crash, Rawlings said she did not hit anything, although she was given field sobriety tests and failed, Kmetz said.

Rawlings was arrested and transported to the police station, but was uncooperative with police and continued to scream at officers and pull on her handcuffs until her wrists began to bleed, Kmetz said. She also kicked the processing desk and spit on the floor constantly, threatening an officer, until an officer put a spit mask on her face, according to Kmetz.

After she was charged, she was taken to Newton Hospital by police.

For questions on this report, email ariana.cohn-sheehan@patch.com.


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