CHIEF: MOM ONE OF WORST DWI OFFENDERS WE’VE EVER ARRESTED
MINNEAPOLIS» A New Hope, Minn., woman with a long list of drunken driving convictions and outstanding warrants in three states is in deep trouble with the law again after police in Riverside, Ill., say they found her passed out behind the wheel at a gas station in the suburb of Chicago.
Tasha Schleicher was charged Wednesday with two counts of felony aggravated drunken driving, two counts of misdemeanor drunken driving, no vehicle insurance, driving while license revoked for drunken driving, and transportation of open alcohol while driving.
Schleicher, 41, was arrested most recently in October in Minnesota. At that time, the mother had five of her children in her vehicle when she drove drunk and veered into a median cable barrier at highway speeds near Rochester, then was found at the scene breast-feeding her baby.
In Wednesday’s case, Schleicher was sitting in her 2005 Nissan Maxima with keys in the ignition and the engine running at a gas station. It looked as if she had attempted to fill her 2005 Nissan Maxima with kerosene, not gasoline, said Riverside Police Chief Thomas Weitzel.
Officers noticed that she was highly intoxicated and had bloodshot, glassy eyes, and emitted a strong odor of alcohol from her breath. Officers also observed an open bottle of Crown Royal liquor in the front passenger seat. Witnesses later said she was drinking from the bottle before officers arrived, Weitzel said.
She told officers she had 11 children and couldn’t find them. Minnesota Child Protective Services took custody of her children because of the October DWI arrest.
Schleicher’s previous scrapes with the law include drunken driving arrests in Kentucky, Wisconsin, Indiana, California, Oregon and Minnesota. Schneider also was wanted on three out-of-state warrants in Nebraska, Idaho and Oregon, court records show.
“This is one of the worst impaired driving arrests our agency has ever made,” Weitzel said in a statement. “Schneider’s history of six prior DUI’s in six states, with three outstanding warrants from various states speaks to her transient nature.”