Parked in Traffic and Headed Wrong Way: Alleged Drunken Driver Smoked, Chatted on the Phone

West Des Moines Police found an allegedly intoxicated woman talking on her cell phone and smoking a cigarette as she sat in her idled car, which faced the wrong way on busy E.P. True Parkway about 11 p.m. Monday.

Officer Curtis Russell responded to the 7400 block of E.P. True after Westcom Dispatch said someone had reported an intoxicated driver traveling eastbound in the westbound lane of the street, according to a report on file at the West Des Moines Police Department.

When he approached the driver, Jennie Lea Cross, 37, of 723 Warren St., Dexter, she was “slurring her words and had bloodshot eyes.” Russell later arrested Cross on charges of third-offense drunken driving and other traffic charges. Her blood alcohol content was .260, according to the police report.

According to Russell’s report, Cross stumbled repeatedly and needed assistance walking from her vehicle to his patrol car, and from the patrol car to the West Des Moines Police Department, where she was processed.

Russell noted on his report that Cross “had terrible balance” and at one point had to balance herself on the wall to perform sobriety tests. He said her demeanor was “belligerent.”

“She was yelling, crying, and at one point, slammed our jail phone to the ground,” he wrote.