A Darien woman was charged with drunken driving Tuesday evening after her daughter called a friend to say she was in her mother’s SUV in Norwalk and her mother was intoxicated, police said.
After receiving the 15-year-old’s call and learning the location of the vehicle, the female friend called Norwalk Police at 7:53 p.m.
Officers located the tan Lexus 350 in a parking lot off Grandview Avenue near Jefferson Science Magnet Elementary School.
They reported the 15-year-old was in the front passenger seat and her 11-year-old sister in the back seat, and both were upset.
Police spokeswoman Sgt. Lisa Cotto said officers reported the woman, later identified as Kathryn A. Sullivan, had the smell of alcohol on her breath and her eyes were glassy.
Cotto said Sullivan initially told the officers she had two drinks, but later said she might have had four drinks.
Sullivan failed a three-part field sobriety test, Cotto said, and was transported to Police Headquarters. There, Sullivan’s blood alcohol content was tested twice, with the first test resulting in a measurement of 0.237 percent and the second 0.226 percent.
A driver with a blood alcohol content at or above 0.08 percent is considered under the influence of alcohol.
The woman who Sullivan’s daughter called earlier came to headquarters to pick up her and her sister.
Sullivan, 44, of Holmes Court, was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol, two counts of risk of injury to a minor, and driving an uninsured vehicle.
She was held on $1,500 bond and given a court date of March 7.
Editor's notes: This article originally was published by Norwalk Patch. This article was updated at 7:07 p.m. Wednesday to add the time of the call to police: 7:53 p.m. On Darien Patch, this article originally was published Wednesday. The timestamp has been changed for layout purposes on the Home page of Darien Patch.
For the kid's sake, please take down the photo.
It's one thing to have a couple of drinks, and drive your kids around--it's quite another to be nearly comatose. I suggest that those who are mad at the reporter , the next time you go out, bring a breathalyzer (you can get them at drug stores or even costco)-- after you've been out an hour, blow into it. Having a couple of drinks may bring it to .6. This woman is 3- 4 times that--and there is a time laspse between police arriving and actually adminsitering test. The math would suggest that a person with .23 has had 5-8 drinks in a hour. Anyone who has ever worked in an emergency room, on an ambulance, etc will tell you that drinking and driving has fatal results. If you think the article is the big problem here--I think you all are out of your mind
Many years ago I was you. I was a young kid riding in the car with my mother, who was often drunk. I never called anyone to tell them. My mom never got arrested. She continued to drink, and now she's dead. None of us would talk about her alcoholism, it was totally off limits. We all acted like didn't exist and that everything was ok. It wasn't ok, and and she continued to drink until she literally drank herself to death. I know how painful this is, but think about how painful it will be if in the coming years she continues to drink and ends up dead before you're 30. That I guarantee will be more painful that having to go through this, and maybe this will be enough to wake her up and see what she is doing, not only to herself but to her children and get help. And maybe, hopefully, your story will have a different ending than mine.
Amen
From now on, if anyone in town with children, wives, fathers, mothers, or any relative in town gets arrested, their name and picture should be excluded from any paper. Only people who are lonely and have no family in town should have their names exposed so "maybe their families won't be embarrassed." Do you think Adam Lanza's name and picture should have been removed from the TV because it might embarrass his family? NO. News is news, good and bad. Bottom line is, if you don't want your name and picture broadcasted on the news, don't violate the law. This woman drove with alcohol in her system 3x the legal limit, with her kids in the car. It is her fault, not the news. Let's quit placing blame on Patch, and revert it to the criminal. She brought this upon herself, and SHE is the one bringing her kids embarrassment, not this article. Thank you, Bye
Also, I'm also going to change the comment control settings for this article: Starting immediately, no comment will appear here without prior approval from an editor (usually me). No further comments will be posted here from anyone claiming to be a member of the family.
i agree Unless things have changed drastically recently, i know my teenage kids would never call themselves a child.
If it takes shaming her, by publishing her photo, then publish away, Patch, and CTPost, etc.!! In my book the daughter is a hero, and there is no way this woman is a "wonderful wife and mother" (BV's words) to put her children in such danger! She must be an alcoholic, to be drinking so much on an evening when she has responsibilities with her children! Very sad for those daughters.
So you can decide for yourself. But I do think that Patch does the town a service in this case. You obviously know this woman. And you like her and her family. So, I understand the concept of defending her. However-do you really think it would be fair for people not to understand the lack of responsibility this woman exhibits? Do you think its fair that at some point in the next week she may be picking up your kids, and not be able to see straight? You really think that the best way to handle this is to keep it quiet and not allow people to be fully apprised of the danger that exists if she picks your kid up on some random week night? I sometimes think that some people have no idea how dangerous drinking and driving is. Lots of people do it--but huge HUGE difference between .06 and .16 let alone 0.23 BAC = .225-.30 = Drinkers display general inertia, near total loss of motor functions, little response to stimuli, inability to stand or walk, vomiting, and incontinence. Drinkers may lose consciousness or fall into a stupor. Do you wonder why the daughter was scared? Wake up and realize the seriousness of this.
"He's thinking about it"
Take it down, this could be your kids.
Yeah I have heard of it. Thanks. I ve heard of stalking as well. When someone is that drunk--I can form an opinion. Im not on the jury--maybe you dont understand that the brain has the ability to reason. I think the human brain is different than an insects brain--and when your daughter is so afraid that she calls someone out of fear--and the woman blows 2 readings of above .2 Im gonna take that leap. You can determine that she is innocent--I couldnt give a rats.
Does this treatment make you think twice about drinking and driving?
You seriously don't have a sense of what's important and what's not. The Darien dad who were arrested in a message parlor would be a perfect NY Post Page Six "news". As a mom of young kids, I cannot care less about a local dad having his pants down in Stamford! But a drunk mom driving an SUV loaded with kids is VERY dangerous to everyone in her car and others on the road. We should be thankful no one was hurt in this incident. I wonder for those who object this mug shot being published had objected any published drunk drivers' mug shots in the past. Darien Moms - if you are her neighbors and friends, please help her to get help! Don't just pretend that your life and your marriages are perfect. Sorry kids, I understand your anger and embarrasment. This is one of these incidents when life and your parents are not perfect. Let's not assume everything can be easy (tho in Darien kids tend to believer that). You are better equip to overcome difficult situations in the future!