Drunk driver riding around with eight-year-old girl and drunk friend kicks officer after being arrested Thursday night

On Thursday, March 2nd, 2023, at 9:18 pm, a Turlock Police officer near the intersection of W Olive Ave and Grant Ave, Turlock, observed a woman driving an unsafe vehicle with expired registration, so he made a traffic stop on her.

The officer made contact with and identified the woman, Adriana Perez, 25, of Ceres, as well as her passenger, Jennifer Vega, 30, of Turlock. Also in the vehicle was an eight-year-old girl.

While speaking with Perez, the officer noticed that she was exhibiting objective symptoms of being under the influence, so he removed her from her vehicle and asked her if she would be willing to participate in standardized field sobriety tests. Perez agreed and completed the first test, however, became belligerent when she noticed another officer attempting to control Vega, her passenger, who was becoming passively resistive.

Based on the totality of the circumstances, officers determined that Perez was under the influence of alcohol, so she was arrested. Vega was also arrested due her behavior and level of intoxication.

When officers attempted to place Perez in one of their patrol vehicles, she began to resist and kicked an officer several times.

Perez eventually calmed down and provided two breath samples at the scene as required by California’s implied consent law. The breath samples revealed that Perez had a blood alcohol content of .08% or greater.

Perez and Vega were both booked into the Stanislaus County Public Safety Center, Perez on charges of child abuse or endangerment under circumstances likely to produce great bodily harm or death, bringing or sending an alcoholic beverage or non-controlled substance or paraphernalia for such into a jail or prison, attempting to deter or resist an executive officer in the performance of their duty by means of threat or violence, driving under the influence of alcohol, and driving with a blood alcohol content of .08% or greater, and Vega on the charge of public intoxication. Perez was also issued an administrative driver’s license suspension order by the California Department of Motor Vehicles and her vehicle was impounded.

The eight-year-old girl was comforted by an officer on scene and then transported to the Turlock Police Department where she was picked up by her grandmother.