A drunk driver stopped by police told officers she should not be arrested because she was a “clean, thoroughbred white girl”.
Lauren Elizabeth Cutshaw, 32, was pulled over in the early hours of Saturday morning after she ran a stop sign at 60mph in a 30mph zone in Bluffton, South Carolina.
Officers noticed “the woman’s eyes were bloodshot and glossy, she was slurring her words, and there was a smell of alcohol coming from the car”, South Carolina news website The State reports.
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Although Cutshaw claimed to have drunk only two glasses of wine, “when officers asked how much she filled the glasses, she responded, ‘I mean, I was celebrating my birthday’,” local newspaper the Island Packet reports.
A breathalyser showed she had more than twice the legal limit of alcohol in her system.
As officers prepared to take her into custody Cutshaw reeled off a laundry list of reasons why she should avoid arrest, including the fact that she had been a cheerleader and had a degree from a “highly accredited university”.
According to the police report, she is also said to have told officers that she was a “clean, thoroughbred white girl”, in what The Independent calls “a display of entitlement that will make you wince”.
When asked why she had brought up her race, she said: “You’re a cop, you should know what that means”.
The arresting officer noted that her line of reasoning was “unusual” and further evidence of her intoxication.
Despite her pleas, Cutshaw was booked into Beaufort County Detention Center. She faces charges of speeding, disregarding a stop sign, driving under the influence, marijuana possession and possession of drug paraphernalia.