Caledonia Woman Charged With 4th OWI

A Caledonia woman was charged by the Racine County District Attorney’s Office with suspicion of drunk driving (fourth offense) on Thursday, December 22, 2011 in the 4000 block of Kennedy Drive.

Denyse Cooper, 46, of Caledonia, is being held at the Racine County Jail on a probation and parole hold. If convicted of the charge, Cooper faces up to six years in prison and/or up to a $10,000 fine.

According to the criminal complaint, Cooper crashed her car into a concrete barrier. A witness told police he heard the sound of a crash at about 11:30 p.m. and on his way to work he saw the car crashed into the barrier at about 3:45 a.m. The car was in drive and had the engine running, and the radio played loudly as Cooper slept behind the wheel. An officer with the moved the gear from drive to neutral and turned off the car.

While the officer talked to Cooper, he smelled the odor of alcohol coming from Cooper and “had to shake her left shoulder to wake her.” Thirty seconds later Cooper woke, but she was disoriented and cursed at the officer when he asked for her name.

Cooper told the officer she didn’t need to give her identification to him, that she worked at a Mt. Pleasant tavern, and refused to give the officer her name. The officer, who told her he would remove her from the car if she didn’t cooperate, grabbed Cooper and took her out of the car, according to the complaint.

The officer had to hold Cooper up as she got out of the car. Cooper continued to tell him she didn’t have to give her name and he put her in his squad car. While searching Cooper’s purse, the officer found her identification and found out that she had three prior drunk driving arrests, was on probation and her license was revoked.

When the officer asked Cooper to do a field sobriety test, Cooper cursed at him. She was taken to the hospital for a mandatory blood-alcohol draw and then taken to the Racine County Jail.

When the officer asked her questions, Cooper said she didn’t remember driving her car. He asked her why and she told him she had been drinking too much.

Cooper’s bail has been set for $1,000. She was ordered not to drive at all.