DWI woman goes to PD station,
gives up

Copyright © 2008
Gallup Independent
By Phil Stake
Staff writer

GALLUP — A drunken driver saved police some hassle Saturday night when she motored into the jail parking lot and conveniently stopped inside the sally port. A sally port is found at virtually every jail, and is the notorious vestibule where police offload cuffed suspects for booking.

The gated entrance to the sally port is usually secured but was undergoing maintenance around 8:30 p.m. when state police Officer Dusty Francisco, who had just finished booking a male subject, watched a purple car rush through the entrance and park abruptly behind his cruiser, according to Francisco's report.

The driver, later identified as 27-year-old Shayne Sherry Henio, advised Francisco to arrest her because she was drunk. The drunk woman threw her hands up in surrender then continued to verbally assaulting the male passenger, later identified as 25-year-old Spencer Ashley, who was wanted on a bench warrant for his failure to appear in court two months ago. Ashley was the apparent victim of a lovers’ quarrel.

Francisco described him as “shaking.” Ashley said outright that he was scared.

Befuddled by this strange sequence of events, Francisco told the woman to wait while he grabbed his cuffs. As he did so, the woman walked to the passenger side of the car, opened the door and began battering Ashley in the chest and aggressively informing him that he was going to jail, too.

Francisco separated the couple and cuffed the woman, who he describes as becoming “verbally combative.”

Francisco reports smelling alcohol on the woman and observing her eyes as watery and bloodshot. A twice-administered breathalyzer showed results of .12, 1 1/2 times the legal limit.

She was eventually booked for DWI, assault, battery and driving with an open container.

Ashley was booked for the outstanding bench warrant.

And the car was towed out of the sally port.