Towamencin Police have filed DUI charges against a Pottstown woman after she was allegedly found unconscious behind the wheel of a running vehicle late last month.
Police were dispatched to the area of Saratoga Lane and Ridgewood Way at 6:31 p.m. on Jan. 27 for a report of a suspicious vehicle that had been idling in the area for more than one hour. Arriving officers located the vehicle along the unit block of Saratoga Lane and observed a female driver — later identified as 57-year-old Alison Byrne — unconscious behind the wheel with her vehicle in drive, according to charging documents.
The report states
police were able to wake Byrne up, at which time she put the vehicle in park.
Police described Byrne as confused and smelling of alcohol, with glassy eyes
and unsteady on her feet. When asked if she knew where she was, she said "Somewhere
like Coventry, Pottstown,” according to police.
Byrne declined to answer when asked if she had been drinking, and also refused a portable breath test and a blood-alcohol test, according to the complaint. She also failed a series of field sobriety tests, police said.
Once in custody, investigators said they found a quarter-full opened bottle of vodka inside of Byrne’s purse, and a criminal record check showed she had been arrested for DUI four times in the last year.
As a result of the incident, Byrne has been charged with one felony count of DUI, and a summary count of restrictions on alcoholic beverages. Court records show she was arraigned the following morning, and was transferred to county jail in lieu of $5,000 cash bail along with a probation detainer.
Her next court appearance is a preliminary hearing on Feb. 21 at 2:30 p.m. in front of Magisterial District Judge Ed Levine.
All suspects and defendants are innocent until proven guilty. This story was compiled using public court records.
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