New Durham Woman Arrested On 2nd DUI, Cocaine Possession, Crash Charges

CONCORD, NH — A woman from New Durham faces a felony drug count and other charges after an incident on North Main Street last month.

At just after midnight on Dec. 26, 2022, an officer was the Cumberland Farms on North Main Street for a follow-up call when a store employee pointed to a silver car in the parking lot with a possibly impaired driver. The officer recognized the car from earlier in the evening after seeing a woman driving who appeared to be nodding off, a report said. The officer asked the employee why he thought she was impaired, and the employee claimed she appeared to have balance issues earlier and she drove her vehicle into a pole in front of the store.

The car left the parking lot, and the officer began following it, attempting to pull it over. The car, a Honda Civic, refused to stop and appeared to be attempting to elude the officer, the report stated. The officer said the car turned onto Interstate 393 and finally stopped near South Commercial Street in the middle of the road.

Dispatch told the officer the car matched the description of another car where a complainant stated it was all over the road about 20 minutes before. The car was on Court Street, but officers could not find it.

The officer spoke to the driver, Savannah M. Hyman, 28, of Ragged Mountain Road in New Durham, and claimed her car smelled “fruity,” and they noticed “the scent of marijuana” coming from the vehicle, too.

“Hyman's eyes were slightly bloodshot, glossed over, and she had a blank stare,” the officer wrote. “Hyman was speaking and blinking very slowly, and she was slow to respond to any questions. Hyman's speech was slurred and slow.”

The officer accused Hyman of smelling like alcohol, too, but she denied drinking anything and claimed, “she had only been vaping,” a report said. The report said she admitted to striking a pole at the store but said she did not think anything was damaged. The officer, however, “observed there was extensive damage on the front bumper and there were scratches on both sides.”

The officer requested Hyman exit the car and perform a field sobriety test, and she said no, an affidavit said, and the officer decided to arrest her.

“After I told Hyman she was going to be arrested, she said she would submit to field sobriety tests and check on the damages to her vehicle,” the officer wrote in the report. “I told Hyman I had already made my decision, and Hyman told me she was not impaired and she would submit to testing if it meant she wasn't going to be arrested. I decided to allow Hyman to take field sobriety and dispel my probable cause instead of arresting her without SFSTs.”

After the tests and questions about substance usage, Hyman was arrested.

During a roadside search, she was accused of possessing a container filled with cannabis oil and two marijuana bowls. The report also said an open can of vodka seltzer and two containers of marijuana were in the car.

The officer accused Hyman of being “very unsteady on her feet” while guided through police headquarters. She also appeared to be “struggling to understand” directions of where to walk, the officer said, including being told, multiple times to face the orange wall inside an elevator.

During a search at police headquarters, Hyman was not found to have any drugs or anything else, an affidavit said. But the officer did not check necklaces she was wearing, the report said, and did not notice she was wearing it until later.

The officer accused Hyman of being “more irate” during the booking process and reached “through her cell door attempting to grab her jacket,” the report said. After the jacket landed on the floor, Hyman got upset, the officer said.

One officer saw she was wearing necklaces and requested she remove them. When she did, the report said, a small baggie with four white bars, which appeared to be compressed drugs, fell on the floor. Hyman accused police of planting the drugs on her because she got so angry about her coat, the affidavit stated.

The report said the officer told Hyman the booking room was being recorded by surveillance and she was patted down to see if she had more drugs. Nothing else was found, the report said, and the bars field tested for cocaine.

The officer accused Hyman of having difficulty performing simple tasks during the booking process and being led back out of the police station to a sober party.

Hyman was charged with possession of a controlled drug, a felony, as well as driving under the influence and conduct after an accident charges and a possession of marijuana, three-quarters of an ounce or less, first or second violation. She was arraigned on Jan. 12 in Merrimack County Superior Court and is due back in court for a dispositional conference hearing on May 15. Hyman was previously convicted on a drunken driving charge in Ossipee District Court in September 2015.

A second officer was sent to Cumbies to take a picture of the damaged pole, the report said.

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