A urine test shows Angela West wasn’t intoxicated when she was arrested by the Dallas Police Department for DWI. Test results from a blood sample taken by the police are pending, while a breathalyzer test was “inconclusive.”
On August 20, the Dallas Police Department arrested Angela West, wife of gubernatorial candidate Allen West for the charge of Driving While Intoxicated with a child under 15 (her grandchild). According to Juan Fernandez of DPD, she was stopped at 8:44 p.m. “for a traffic violation.” Angela West thinks the “violation”—driving over the shoulder of the road—occurred while she was interacting with her GPS. “I wasn’t driving any way other than straight before that,” she told Texas Scorecard. Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia said in a press conference Monday she failed to signal before entering the shoulder.
“The officer [later identified as Lydia Harris] had reasons to believe the driver may be intoxicated and performed a Standardized Field Sobriety test, which subsequently led to her arrest for DWI,” Fernandez continued. One of the tests was a breathalyzer. “The results … were inconclusive because the test wasn’t done properly,” Garcia said.
“I believe the officer believed she had probable cause to think the individual was driving while intoxicated,” he said.
On the morning of August 23, Mrs. West took a urine drug test from Any Lab Test Now in Mesquite. Any Lab Test Now told Texas Scorecard the results for these types of tests are from the time of the test to the past “80 hours through 3 plus days” and that they are “very accurate.” The results showed Mrs. West tested negative for ethyl glucuronide, which “relates to a composite byproduct of ethanol, which is found in consumable alcohol.” The test was taken before 72 hours had passed of Mrs. West’s arrest.
“Yes, it looks like the cops got this one wrong, even though her driving made them suspicious,” Mike Openshaw said.
Officer Harris’ affidavit cited a cup in Mrs. West’s vehicle as another reason for believing she was Driving While Intoxicated. “She said that my McDonald’s cup in the front, she smelled a strong odor of liquor,” Mrs. West said. “She smelled a strong odor of HI-C Orange.” HI-C Orange Lavaburst is a soft drink offered by McDonald’s. “If she felt as though there was liquor in that cup, she should have taken it with her.”
Texas Scorecard asked DPD about the lab test results and why no effort was made to test the contents of the McDonald’s cup. “Chief Garcia spoke to the media in length on this issue yesterday. Although the sound is not great, please go to the Dallas Police Facebook page and review our facebook live video during that presser,” Warren Mitchell replied.
“We did not take the cup,” Garcia said Monday. “That is not usually in the course and scope of a DWI investigation.”
Furthermore, Allen West provided Texas Scorecard with photographs of receipts showing what his wife ate and drank at P.F. Chang’s China Bistro that evening before driving. The time on the receipts is roughly 40 minutes before she was pulled over.
Still pending are results of a blood test for alcohol the police took of Mrs. West. “Regardless of what the lab results show, I believe that [Officer Harris] believes that there was probable cause to think that something was impacting [Mrs. West’s] driving,” Garcia said.
Allen West, meanwhile, believes his wife’s “civil rights were violated.”
“We have facts on our side. I don’t see any facts on the side of Dallas Police Department,” he said. “We hope that this will be dismissed very soon and her record will be expunged.”
