Posted on 01/28/2005 6:00:12 AM PST by Kokojmudd
Is it just me or did the police go OVERBOARD by arresting this woman when there are many, many, better candidates for arrest out there?
sorry here is the story
By Becky Pallack
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
A woman whose SUV stalled in a flooded wash Thursday resisted initial rescue efforts because she worried about being arrested, officials said.
It was very "out of the ordinary," said Rick Flores, battalion chief for Rural/Metro Fire Department, of the effort to pull the woman and her two children from the vehicle stuck in the Cañada del Oro Wash at North Overton Road.
The agency's swift-water team made its way to the GMC Yukon then stood in the water and negotiated with Kristina Sullivan Repasch for 15 minutes before she agreed to leave the vehicle.
She kept saying she didn't want to be arrested and she didn't want her kids to be taken from her, Flores said.
She repeatedly asked rescuers to leave, rolled up the windows and locked the doors to keep them away.
Meanwhile, a rescue crew in a helicopter was watching for any debris upstream that could wash down and cause more problems, Flores said.
Once Repasch agreed to be removed from the vehicle, rescuers carried the children - ages 14 and 11 - to safety. They used a raft to rescue Repasch because she is paraplegic, Flores said.
Repasch, 37, was taken to a hospital then booked into the Pima County jail later Thursday. She was charged with two counts of child abuse, reckless driving and failure to obey a traffic device.
Under Arizona's "Stupid Motorist Law," a driver who removes or ignores barricades at a flooded wash could face a minimum $2,000 fine. Agencies can also seek fines for each firefighter and piece of rescue equipment used at the scene.
More than 20 people from Rural/Metro, the Pima County Sheriff's Department and the state Department of Public Safety helped at the scene.
Uhhhh.....no. She put her kids in danger to save her own skin
She was so afraid of being arrested, and they ended up arresting her?
REally
No, she got what she deserved.
If she removed a barrier then got stuck in high water she was endangering her children. Arrest seems fine to me.
Damn SUVs!
Well, at least she, AND HER CHILDREN, got rescued too!
Knowing I will suffer rebuke, may I offer, It's just you.
Police work is best handled by police.
Don't give up your day job. ;)
Even if she didn't remove any barriers, she's stalled in the middle of flood water and is refusing to let rescuers rescue her children. She clearly endangered her kids by doing this.
"Damn SUVs!"
My gosh they really did go overboard it was the SUV's fault!
True.
"Knowing I will suffer rebuke, may I offer, It's just you.
Police work is best handled by police.
Don't give up your day job. ;)"
LOL. No rebuke here it is just me...a lingering effect of reading about the 9 and 10 years olds in FL who were arrested for drawing threatening stick figures I think! Here is AZ if you drive your car into a wash you can get arrested. She must have driven around the barricades.
Nope. It's just you. She was an idiot for
A) Removing the barriers in the first place
B) Attempting to drive through high water on the roads and
C) Doing this all with her children in the back.
She will be lucky if they don't take her children away IMO.
No I don't think they were out of bounds at all.
First this woman went around barricades warning her of danger, then willfully caused additional risk to those who were already putting their own lives in jepordy to rescue her and her children.
Charges should include:
Selfishness
Stupidity
Carelessness
Ignorance
......
Maybe she drove around the barriers, but I doubt she removed them.
What a moron. She didn't want her kids to be taken away from her, yet she left them directly in harms way for at least 15 minutes. Arrest is appropriate for this schmuck.
Maybe she had her kids remove them....making them co-conspirators. The police could arrest them as well!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.