Christine Jones' DUI story just doesn't add up.
Jones, the former Go Daddy general counsel now running as a Republican candidate for Arizona governor, told an officer during an April 2004 stop that she'd just had one drink, nearly five hours earlier.
Yet two breathalyzer tests showed her BAC at .102 and .103.
See also: - Worst Part of Christine Jones' Campaign for Governor So Far?
But could anyone believe that "one drink" line?
Jones was stopped at 2:26 a.m. on April 10, 2004, in her Lincoln Aviator, the police report obtained by New Times shows.
Phoenix police officer GW Rice, going eastbound on Ray Road near 32nd Street, saw the SUV "driving down the middle of the two lanes" at about 35 mph, the report states. He did a U-turn and noticed the vehicle was still driving in the middle of two lanes. As he tailed Jones westbound, he saw the SUV weave well into a bicycle lane, continuing in the bike lane for "200-300 feet until I initiated a traffic stop..."
Jones told the officer she was very tired and thanked him for stopping her. He noticed she had bloodshot, watery eyes and had a moderate reek of booze.
"I asked her how much she had to drink tonight and she stated 'one drink earlier with dinner,'" the report says, later adding that she'd stopped drinking before 10 p.m.
Dinner with the "one" mixed drink had occurred at Black Angus, but now she was on her way home after dropping off a friend a "few blocks away."
Officer Rice noticed a "slight stagger as she walked" after getting out of the SUV. She asked Rice if she'd be given an HGN test, saying she knew about those because she used to be a prosecutor. She flunked the test, which measures eye movement. Didn't do well on the field tests, either. As mentioned, the breath test showed her BAC was higher than .08 legal limit for drivers. She was handcuffed and processed at a DUI van, where police snapped the black-and-white picture seen above. (The records department didn't have the actual photo file for us, just a Xerox of the image.)
Unlike some DUI arrests, this one went very quickly. Less than an hour after being stopped, she was given a citation and "released to a friend." Phoenix police Sergeant Tommy Thompson says Jones received "routine" treatment.
"We don't always book you," Thompson says, in explaining that, as a "courtesy" to polite suspects, many DUI arrests end without the person being booked into jail. However, he adds, "if you're a bonehead, we're not going to extend you that courtesy."
Because Jones wasn't booked into jail, no mugshot was taken of her on the night of the arrest. She was convicted in 2006 on two DUI misdemeanor charges, paid a fine, and spent one day in the Maricopa County Jail. There, she submitted to a mugshot -- the second picture seen here.
After news of the old conviction --leaked to the media by someone -- made minor headlines this week, Jones released a statement saying she regretted the incident. She's so far refused to answer any questions about it. And no wonder.
One drink? That's about as believable as -- a campaign promise.
