ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A woman is suing the municipality of Anchorage, claiming she was falsely arrested for drunken driving after she refused to give her phone number to a police officer.
Nancy Means is seeking to have the municipality scrub any evidence of her arrest, according to the Anchorage Daily News.
Officer David Burns saw a minivan with hazard lights flashing early the morning of Nov. 25, 2011. He found Means and three passengers in the disabled minivan. According to the lawsuit, Means said they were shopping on Black Friday.
Burns noted in his report that he smelled “the slight odor of alcohol coming from her.”
He sought and received her license and insurance information, but she refused when he asked for her phone number. She then asked for her lawyer to be present.
According to the lawsuit, Means interpreted the request for her phone number as an “untoward sexual advance by Burns.”
Seeking a phone number was a “departure from routine procedure for an officer contacting a stranded and disabled vehicle,” according to the lawsuit.
Burns then arrested her for operating a vehicle under the influence. A later breath test listed her blood-alcohol level at .000.
Officer Thomas Gaulke conducted the breath test about an hour after the arrest. He noted in his report that he didn’t see any signs of intoxication from her, nor did he smell any alcohol.
She was released after a bail hearing, and city prosecutors nearly a month later decided not to prosecute the case.
Means, however, said the arrest for an unspecified misdemeanor charge remains on her record and available on the Internet.
Assistant municipal attorney Pamela Weiss said officers often get phone numbers for possible follow-up questioning.
“It’s not unreasonable to get contact information from a person whom an officer has made contact with,” she said.
When a lawyer sought to have Means’ criminal charge sealed, municipal attorney Dennis Wheeler responded in a Nov. 1 letter that he stood behind the officer and that the city would “mount a vigorous defense” if sued.
He said the officer had probable cause to believe Means had committed a crime, “and the arrest was proper,” Wheeler wrote.
Police spokeswoman Jennifer Castro said they do not comment on active lawsuits, but did say Burns remains on the force.
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