Woman arrested for DUI was celebrating end of previous DUI suspension

A 58-year-old Brookfield, Illinois, woman charged by Riverside police on Friday for driving under the influence said she had been out celebrating the imminent return of her driver’s licence from an earlier drunk driving conviction.

Erin James, 58, was charged after she was stopped for speeding at 2:10am . When she later underwent a breath test at the department, her blood alcohol level was 0.155 percent; the legal limit is 0.08.



Police said that James’ driver’s licence had been suspended in 2012 after a DUI arrest in North Riverside and that she had told a Riverside officer she had been out celebrating at a bar the fact that she would be getting her licence back.

Riverside Police Chief Tom Weitzel said that James was supposed to be driving a vehicle that included a breath alcohol ignition interlock device (BAIID) and was purposely driving a vehicle lacking that device. “The fact that she was driving a vehicle not equipped with a BAIID shows that she had every intent of drinking and getting behind the wheel,” Weitzel said. James is scheduled to appear in Central Bond Court.