By JON BAKER

LINCOLN  —  Police arrested Eunice D. DeLaHoz, a Central Falls City Council member and Finance Committee chairwoman, late Friday night for driving under the influence (first offense), operating with a suspended license and refusal to submit to a chemical test.

DeLaHoz, 43, of 66 Pacific St., apparently didn’t own the dark sedan she was driving.
At 11:18 p.m. Friday, Patrolman Ryan Laboissonniere had been on a stationary traffic post at the intersection of Great Road and Front Street when dispatch informed officers that a caller was following an erratic driver on Great Road. When Laboissonniere observed the vehicle pass him, he pulled behind it and saw the operator “cradle” the double yellow center lines with two tires each in the northbound and southbound lanes.
As the driver reached River Road, she immediately swerved back to the southbound lane, missing the right-side curbing by mere inches. Once at the intersection of Smithfield Avenue and Great Road, the officer activated his overhead lights and initiated a traffic stop.
“The suspect vehicle was stopped in the middle of the intersection for approximately 10 seconds,” Laboissonniere wrote in his report. “After (those) 10 seconds, I used my (public address system) to order the operator to pull the vehicle over to the side of the road in a safe location. After approximately five more seconds of blocking the intersection, the operator complied with my commands and pulled the vehicle off to the side of the road.
“As soon as the suspect vehicle (did that), the driver’s door opened immediately, and I observed the operator’s left hand holding what appeared to be a gold badge,” he continued. “I immediately exited my (cruiser) and ordered the operator to close the door and open the driver’s side window. The operator refused … and put her arm back in the vehicle.”
When he approached the car, Laboissonniere noticed a juvenile male sleeping in the back seat and also a strong odor of alcohol emanating from the driver. He also observed the woman to have bloodshot, watery eyes. The officer asked her twice if the driver’s side window could roll down, and the female finally obliged, again holding up the badge.
“After asking DeLaHoz for a third time to close the driver’s door, I opened the window myself and then closed the door for my safety,” Laboissonniere reported. “I asked DeLaHoz for her license, registration and insurance document to which she replied, ‘I’m on the City Council in Central Falls’ … DeLaHoz mumbled that this is not her car, and she will have to look for the registration and insurance document.”
DeLaHoz tried to open the glove box, but it was locked. She then allegedly attempted to open the glove box about 10 times before she was able to get the key inside the lock. She finally presented the registration and proof of insurance, but then was unable to provide a license.
The suspect told the officer she had left her driver’s license at a mall earlier in the week, and that had yet to receive it via mail, though a computer check revealed it had been suspended on Nov. 14, 2008 for failure to appear. When Laboissonniere asked her if her license indeed had been suspended, she said, “No, they gave me a paper to carry around if I get pulled over; it’s all set.”
When asked who gave her that “paper,” she told Laboissonniere the registry had, but it was in her other car.
DeLaHoz stated she said she had been at a reunion, and — after being asked if she had consumed any alcoholic beverages — she replied she had three glasses of wine. Laboissonniere then asked if she had anything to eat at the reunion, and she stared straight ahead, offering no answer.
When the officer asked DeLaHoz to exit the vehicle, he wrote, she needed to use her left hand to balance herself to walk the length of the car. He asked her to submit to a series of field sobriety tests, and she consented.
She failed the Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus test, and Laboissoniere asked her if she had any injuries which would prevent her from completing the “Walk and Turn,” and she said she did. He asked her the nature of the injury, and she stated, “I don’t have to tell you based on the Americans with Disabilities Act.” He also asked if she would like to attempt the test, and she replied, according to the report, “I’m on the City Council in Central Falls, and I know my rights. I do not have to do anything.”
With Patrolman Clifford Landry on scene, Laboissonniere read DeLaHoz her rights and arrested her, then transported her to headquarters for processing. At 12:02 a.m., the officer requested DeLaHoz take a chemical test, she stated, “I’m not signing anything until the city solicitor of Central Falls calls me here.”
Two minutes later, police advised her she was being charged with DUI (first offense, BAC unknown) and driving with a suspended license, both misdemeanors, and refusal to submit to a chemical test.
At 12:11 a.m., after a search by Patrolwoman Gwendolyn Thompson, she was placed in a cell. She later was issued a Rhode Island Traffic Tribunal citation for refusal to submit and a laned roadway violation, and to appear for arraignment on July 13; and a summons to appear in Sixth District Court in Providence on July 10 on the two misdemeanor charges.