June 30, 2021
By News Director Jared Atha
An Elk City woman was arrested and charged recently after allegedly driving drunk with five minors in the car.
According to the probable cause affidavit, 29-year-old Tessa Renae Duncan Redd was arrested on June 18 when a trooper with the Oklahoma Highway Patrol observed a vehicle driving on State Highway 6 in Beckham County that appeared to have cross lane lines multiple times, as well as speeding up and slowing down abruptly.
The trooper wrote that he observed what appeared to look like a foot sticking out of the driver’s side window.
After initiating a traffic stop, the trooper noted that the driver, later identified as being Redd, admitted to him that she had a suspended driver’s license. Redd also told the trooper that she was in the process of taking the kids to a lake. The trooper noted that all five kids in the vehicle were sitting in the backseat and the cargo space of the car, all without seatbelts.
The affidavit stated that there was a passenger in the vehicle that said she did have a valid drivers license, but could not drive the vehicle as she required an ignition interlock. She also claimed that three of the five kids were hers.
OHP says while Redd was being interviewed in the trooper’s cruiser, the suspect had allegedly rolled down the passenger side window in an effort to conceal the smell of alcohol. In fact, the trooper reported that he could detect a heavy smell of alcohol coming from the suspect’s breath and her person. The affidavit stated that during a field sobriety test, Redd failed multiple times.
A check of the vehicle’s license plate would show that it did not belong to the car, and the suspect also confessed that she did not have valid insurance on the vehicle.
Redd was arrested and booked into the Beckham County Jail. She was formally charged last week with child neglect, driving a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol, driving with a suspended license, failure to maintain insurance, and removing proper or an improper license plate.
Redd is due in court on July 19.
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