A Florida mother was arrested for DUI after police say they spotted her 5-year-old daughter hanging out of a moving vehicle’s window while she was behind the wheel.
Isabella Fernanda Saenz, 26, is facing charges of child neglect and DUI following the Sunday night incident.
According to a probable cause arrest affidavit, a Pembroke Pines Police Department officer was stationed at the intersection of North Flamingo Road and Sheridan Street when he noticed a child hanging out of a rear passenger window, her upper body fully exposed, while the car sat at a stoplight.
Police said the girl remained hanging out of the window even after the light turned green and the vehicle began moving. The affidavit states that Saenz then drove from the right-hand turn lane into the eastbound lane, crossing over a solid white line in the process. The officer initiated a traffic stop shortly after.
Saenz told the officer she hadn’t realized her daughter was unbuckled and leaning out of the window, according to police. Officers said her breath smelled of alcohol and her eyes appeared glassy. She explained she was driving home from a child’s birthday party, and later admitted to officers that she had smoked marijuana and had one margarita.
Police then had Saenz perform a series of field sobriety tests, during which she reportedly struggled to keep her balance and had trouble following directions, the affidavit said. Breath tests administered afterward showed her blood-alcohol content at 0.123 and 0.124 — both well above the legal limit of 0.08.
Saenz was taken into custody and booked into the Broward County Jail. She has since been released after posting an $8,000 bond.
In the affidavit, officers wrote that Saenz’s failure to notice her daughter hanging out of the window put the child at risk of “serious physical injury or substantial risk of death.”
A date for her next court appearance had not been listed as of the latest update.